


Someday It'll All Make Sense to Us

by hwrites



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Ex-Best Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Maybe - Freeform, Tinder, angst if you squint, basically fluff, slow burn?, they used to be best friends but then they weren't, will she find The One in her +1?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2019-10-18 01:34:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17571791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwrites/pseuds/hwrites
Summary: None of Tessa’s friends are single except her, which makes having to bring a plus-one to an upcoming wedding a little difficult.Her solution is to make an account for a potential match (no pun intended) on a popular dating app.And who does she happen to come across?Her ex-best friend, Scott Moir.





	1. back at the start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa needs a date to Kaitlyn and Andrew's wedding.

**march fifteenth**

  
  


Tessa turns the blush pink envelope over and over in her hands, debating on whether or not to open it.

 _Ms. Tessa Virtue_ is written in pretty, loopy cursive on the front, followed by her address. There’s no return address, but she’d know Kaitlyn’s handwriting anywhere.

She already knows what it is.

( _“There’s going to be a surprise from Andrew and I in the mail next week!”_ Kaitlyn had chirped over the phone last week, _“Oh, silly me! I shouldn’t have said that, because now you probably know what it is! Pretend I never told you!”_ )

Tessa doesn’t, however, know why she doesn’t want to open it.

 _Probably because then you’ll have to acknowledge that all of your friends are getting married despite that you’re still single_ , a voice that sounds suspiciously like her older sister’s shrills.

Tessa tears open the envelope and pulls out the card inside. It isn’t a card, necessarily, not one that opens or closes, like how it would for a birthday.

 _Save the Date!_ the glossy postcard-sized announcement reads in glittery purple script. Below is a picture of her best friend, Kaitlyn, and her fiancée, Andrew, on a mountain somewhere, a large expanse of valleys and sky behind them as they laugh. There’s a rather large diamond ring on Kaitlyn’s finger; Tessa can’t see it, but she knows that it’s there.

 _Kaitlyn + Andrew: 8.17.19_ , the rest of the card says, and Tessa takes a moment to tack it to the front of her fridge using a magnet with a picture of a sunflower on it.

It’s not like she’s going to forget about the wedding; it’s all Kaitlyn has been talking about for the past month, ever since Andrew proposed. At first, Tessa had been enthusiastic; getting married is a big, exciting step, and she was genuinely excited for her friend.

But the more Kaitlyn goes on about this wedding, the less Tessa wants to go. She knows that all of her happily married friends are going to be there, and she’s still single, has been for longer than she’d like to admit.

She wonders if she’ll have to bring a plus-one. If she does, it’s not like she has anyone to bring.

_Is there some sort of website people can use for this? Like a dating website, but for people who need plus-one’s for weddings?_

Tessa googles it and isn’t too heartbroken when such a thing doesn’t exist. 

She’d known it would be a long shot, anyway.

 

Later that afternoon, she’s making dinner when her phone rings. She puts it on speaker as she stirs the pasta for her dinner.

“Hello?”

“Did you get our Save the Date's?” Kaitlyn asks, straight to the point, her voice loud and excited on the other end.

She dares to laugh, despite feeling like that’s the absolute last thing she wants to do right now. “Yeah, I did. They’re very cutesy. How does Andrew feel about them?”

“Oh, I don’t know that he really cares. He just said that they could look like however I wanted, as long as our families got them.”

 _Does he care about_ anything _when it comes to this wedding?_ she thinks, but there’s no way in hell she’d ever say that.

“Do I need to bring a plus-one?” she asks instead.

“You don’t have to, but it would be nice. In fact, do you want me to set you up with a few guys in the months leading up to the wedding? That could be fun!”

“I’ll pass,” Tessa tells her friend with a laugh.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Kaitlyn is her best friend, but before she met Andrew, she was a little misguided when it came to guys, and dating.

 _Not only when it came to guys_ , Tessa thinks, _but when it came to setting_ me _up with guys, as well_.

There was this one guy that Kaitlyn set her up with their junior year of college. His name was Carl and he refused to pay for her dinner in addition to his, so she had to pay for her own dinner. And then he wouldn’t even give her a ride home, so she’d had to call Kaitlyn to come pick her up.

“Well, if you want to bring someone, you certainly can, Tess,” the future Mrs. Andrew Pojé is saying, and her friend doesn’t know if that’s a suggestion or something she’s going to keep bringing up in future conversations. 

Tessa fights the urge to roll her eyes, even though Kaitlyn can’t see her so it wouldn’t be a big deal.

The wedding isn’t for another five months ( _“And two days!”_ she’s gently reminded at the end of the phone call), so Tessa knows that she has time to find a plus one.

It’s just a matter of _how_.

And then, she gets an idea.

 

Tessa is woken up the next morning by her phone going off.

It’s the kind of wake-up when you hear a noise and it’s _just_ the right volume to startle you awake, which she doesn’t like.

She’d forgotten to shut off her ringer last night, and the single metallic ping! must have been what woke her up.

 **TINDER: You have a message from Peter!** the screen tells her once she glances at it.

 _Who sends a message at seven in the morning?_ she speculates after seeing the time, and then she picks up her phone anyway to see what Peter has said.

She’d created the profile shortly before she fell asleep, in a stroke of genius so rare that she doesn’t know where it came from or if it’ll happen again. Tessa had found four of her best pictures, typed out a relatively short bio (purposefully leaving out the reason why she’d made the account in the first place; she didn’t want people to think she was too weird), and then set out to start swiping on guys.

Peter, 29, was the first guy she had matched with, except she couldn’t figure out what to say.

Does she lead with the whole ‘I need a date to my friends’ wedding so that all of my non-single friends could get off my back,’ or would that scare him off?

So, she’d said nothing about it. While Tessa wasn’t sure he was the one, she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. Peter was average looking, with chestnut-colored hair that stuck straight up and dark brown eyes.

She knows that she isn’t looking for love, as some of the people on here are (well, not real love anyway, she’d decided after she’d put down her phone, A fake boyfriend, perhaps?).

The point being, she doesn’t want to get too attached, because she isn’t expecting anything.

Her eyes skim Peter’s message, and Tessa tries to decide if it warrants a reply.

_I think your eyes are really pretty._

_That’s_ it _?_ she thinks glumly. She’s always been a romantic sort of person, someone who believes in love at first sight (or, in this case, love at first swipe), and feels somewhat let down when Average Peter sends her an Average Message.

Then again, what did she expect, in all honesty? The perfect guy to send her the perfect message on the first try?

That’s not likely to happen.

 _Thank you!_ she replies, and then she slightly regrets it, because, even though Kaitlyn and Andrew’s wedding isn’t until August, she doesn’t really have time to waste, and she isn't sure that she wants him to be her date.

_Just give him a chance, Tessa. You're not agreeing to anything._

Plus, there’s a small part of her that hopes she’ll find something other than just a plus-one to this wedding.

 

The next message Peter sends her is two days later, as she’s sitting at her desk at work.

It’s shortly after nine in the morning, and she’s working on next week’s article for the fashion blog that she works for.

She gets the same notification but forgets about it until an hour and a half later, while she’s on her lunch break. 

(Peter has since sent her a few more messages, and she isn’t sure whether to be worried about that or not.)

 _No problem! How are you?_ the first one reads.

 _Tessa. Huh. Is that short for something? Like that chef lady, the one with the cooking channel. What’s her name?_ says the next one, sent an hour after the very first message and ten minutes after the second.

 _Got it!_ remarks the third. _Barefoot Contessa! That’s her real name, right?_

She laughs but stops when she realizes that Average Peter is serious, which prompts her to type back a no, that’s not her real name, and Tessa isn’t short for anything, only worrying if she’d been too harsh as she presses send.

Tessa spends the rest of her lunch break swiping on a few guys; it takes her a while to decide whether or not she’ll swipe on them in the first place, because in order for this fake-plus one thing to work, it has to be believable. 

She isn’t yet sure if she wants Kaitlyn to know that the way she’s going to find a date to the wedding is through Tinder.

None of the guys that she swipes on match with her, but when she checks her phone later that evening, she’ll see that a few of them swiped right in the hours that she hadn’t been looking at her phone.

One of them may even be the one that she ends up taking to the wedding, but neither of them know that yet.


	2. what happened between us (is in the past now)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa knows that things probably aren’t going to be the way they used to be between her and Scott (they are ten years older, after all), but when she agrees to meet him for coffee, she realizes that it’s a start.

**march eighteenth**

  
  


Tessa glances at her phone’s clock as the book she’s been reading softly lands on her comforter.

_12:35 a.m._

She doesn’t have to be up until eight, but she figures that she should probably get some sleep, anyway. 

When she looks at the screen again, she notices that she has three new messages, two of which are from Tinder, both from guys that she matched with.

Sighing, she taps on the screen to launch the app, and sees that both a Reed and a Scott have messaged her.

_Hey_! the one from Reed says.

_Funny seeing you here after all this time_ , reads the message from Scott.

A shiver runs down her spine as she clicks on his profile. Dark brown hair, charming smile . . .

How did she swipe on her high school best friend and not even know?

_What do I even say_? Tessa wonders, knowing that she should reply.

She doesn’t want to, especially not with the way she and Scott ended their friendship, but she also didn’t think that she would ever talk to him again.

The Moir family had moved next door when Tessa was seven and Scott was nine. At first, they were acquaintances, but that didn’t last long. Soon enough, they were inseparable, spending all of their time outside of school together, talking on the phone when they weren’t in the same place.

As middle school progressed, Tessa had begun to notice how Scott would stutter or blush whenever she talked to him and their friends were around, but when it was just the two of them, he was completely fine, laughing and joking with her. She’d never brought it up to him, as she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

Or, at their friend’s sixteenth birthday party her freshman year of high school. There had been a dance floor, and she only really wanted to dance with Scott. She eventually insisted that they should dance with their other friends.

_“Just to be fair, Scott,”_ she remembers fourteen-year-old Tessa whispering, not noticing the expression that passed across his face, one that suggested he would rather leave the party altogether than dance with someone who wasn’t her.

_“Right, yeah, makes sense,”_ Scott had mumbled as he let go of her. Tessa couldn’t help but be disappointed as he went off to dance with someone else, even though she’d been the one to suggest it in the first place.

They didn’t dance together for the rest of the night. She didn’t ask him about it when his mom brought her home later, because she knew that his mother being in the car while they talked would be awkward.

Scott was already upset because he didn’t get his driver’s license as he wasn’t yet sixteen.

By the end of that school year, Tessa was convinced she was in love with him. 

Any time he would look at her, butterflies would kickstart in her stomach, or she’d blush unnecessarily at anything and everything that he said.

As all of her friends shared their accounts of their first kisses or first boyfriends, she would sit and think about what it would be like to date Scott, or kiss him, at the very least.

Then, weeks before her sixteenth birthday, he told her that he was going away to college in the fall.

_“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,”_ he had confessed one Saturday night, while they were sitting in her driveway in his car, watching the clock creep closer to her curfew, like they always did, _“I just didn’t know how. It’s such a big decision, and I didn’t want to tell you until I was sure. You’ll still be in school for two years, but you can still come visit me. You understand though, right? You’re like my sister, T. You’ll always be in my life, you know?”_

She didn’t know. The words _my sister_ tumbled around in her brain as she tried to make sense of them. Tessa hadn’t known what to say, but the words _I’ve liked you for a long time_ were on the tip of her tongue. 

She was so close to saying it right then, but instead she chewed on the inside of her cheek while inspecting her nails, two nervous habits that she instantly felt she needed to break. _“Why are you telling me now? Why not just not tell me at all and leave me to figure it out for myself?”_

He’d been speechless, staring open-mouthed at her as if he couldn’t believe she had actually said that. (She couldn’t believe it, either.) While he sat there, she whispered a “goodbye” as she saw that there was only one minute until her curfew, and it wasn’t until the next morning that she realized that he hadn’t said it back.

They didn’t talk for the rest of the school year. Tessa hardly saw him, except for when she and her older brother Kevin would leave to go to school, and they would see Scott getting into his car at the same time. Scott would wave to Kevin while she avoided eye contact.

Her mother bought her a journal for her birthday, and she wrote in it until she poured her heart onto the pages, only stopping when there wasn’t any more room to write.

Tessa was sure that this was what a broken heart felt like: messy and unclear. There were some days that she wanted to talk to Scott, just because she couldn’t believe _this_ was how their friendship ended.

She thought many times about patching things up over the summer, but then she would see him around with a girl, at the movies or the pizza shop where her sister Jordan worked.

Tessa came to learn, through friends, that his girlfriend’s name was Clara, and they were pretty serious. Clara and Scott either went off to college together or got married, as evidenced by the morning in early August when Scott loaded up the car and drove away with Clara, leaving his parents waving at them from the driveway.

_“Scott did not get_ married, _Tessa,”_ Jordan had said with a roll of her eyes when she’d brought it up later that day. _“That’s ridiculous. I don’t understand why you won’t just_ talk _to him.”_

The fact that Scott was gone had made it easier for her to admit the reason for her radio silence towards him. When she was done talking, Tessa had expected Jordan to start laughing (or worse, force her to call him), but all her older sister did was give her a hug and say that she understood.

Then, Tessa had gone away to a college different than the one Scott had gone to, and she didn’t hear from him or about him, save for the occasional “like” on a Facebook post.

He and Clara eventually broke up, and she almost reached out to him, apologize for being an overdramatic high schooler, but something stopped her.

Now, her phone buzzes again, snapping her out of her thoughts.

_Sorry if that message came off a little strong._

Scott, apologizing for something as simple as a possible misinterpreted text.

The irony of him apologizing to her when she thought she should be the one apologizing around isn’t lost on her.

She doesn’t know how to respond, so she doesn't; instead, she plugs her phone in, sets it on her nightstand, and falls asleep.

 

Her alarm clock beeps exactly at eight o’clock the next morning, and Tessa reluctantly sits up, sighing.

The first thing she sees when she looks at her phone is her unanswered message from Scott, and Tessa knows that she should just answer it.

_It’s been ten years, you need to get over it,_ she tells herself.

She is over it, she thinks. She hasn’t thought about Scott in a long, long time, and she only has today since she’d matched with him on Tinder without knowing how. There’s a part of her that still wants to be friends with him.

So, she responds with a simple _it’s been a while, how are you?_ before doing her morning routine and heading off to go to work.

While at work, all Tessa can think about is how she wishes that she hadn’t stopped talking to Scott just because he went away to school and didn’t tell her.

It’s not like he told her the day before; he’d let her know months before and yet, she still was upset about it, exactly as he’d feared she would be. Scott didn’t know she was in love with him at the time. How could he? She didn’t show her emotions as easily as he did back then, and now, ten years later, she regrets that.

She gets home a few hours later to see a new message from him, but instead of replying, she scrolls through her contacts, hoping that she still has the number she’s looking for.

To her surprise, her broken-hearted, sixteen-year-old self hadn’t thought to erase her best friend’s number from her contacts, and she’s relieved to see that the same number has stayed there through various phones over the years.

“Hello?” Scott answers, and Tessa isn’t prepared for the emotions that suddenly hit her in an overwhelming wave.

“Hi,” she whispers back, feeling tears rising behind her eyes. “I thought . . . well, I thought I might as well just call you.”

“Tessa?” he breathes out in disbelief, “It’s been, what, ten years?”

“Something like that.”

“How . . . how are you doing? I didn’t realize you still had my number.”

“I didn’t either, honestly. I’m doing well, I just got home from work. What about you?”

“I’ve been working, too, but I got home not that long ago.”

An awkward silence follows. Tessa feels like she suddenly doesn’t remember how to talk.

“Listen, Tessa, I’m really sorry about what–” he starts, but she interrupts him.

“Scott, we both know that if anyone should be apologizing for what happened ten years ago, it’s me. So, I’m sorry. I know it wasn’t fair to just let you leave and not explain myself. The truth is, well . . .”

_Here goes nothing._

She takes a deep breath, hearing nothing on the other end.

“I liked you. As more than friends.”

More silence.

It stretches on for so long that she begins to think he hung up.

And then.

“Oh.”

“At the time!” She’s quick to reassure him in the thick awkwardness that’s grown between them, “I know, _I know_ , that you were with Clara then and I couldn't, didn't want to, get in the way of that. Not to mention that you were going to off to college so it wouldn’t have worked between us anyway. Not that that’s bad, it just is what it is. I just had to figure out how I was going to piece my broken heart back together.”

Tessa takes a deep breath after she’s done talking, and when he doesn’t answer her right away, she has to fight the urge to hang up the phone.

“It’s okay,” Scott says eventually, and it takes a second for her to calm down, “As long as you’re not, you know, still in love with me.”

It’s a joke, she realizes after a second has already passed, and then she lets out a laugh that sounds fake even to her own ears.

“No, I’m not. That would be ridiculous, Scott. I haven’t talked to you in ten years, and I think we have a lot to talk about,” Tessa replies.

“Good. Yeah, I’d like that. Maybe we could meet for coffee next Saturday? You don’t work on Saturday’s, do you?”

She answers almost immediately. “No, and I’m guessing you don’t either?”

“Nope. Cool, I’ll see you on Saturday, Tessa.”

“See you then, Scott.”

“Okay, bye.”

There’s a slight smile in his voice as he hangs up, and she’s left staring at her phone, wondering what the hell she's just agreed to.


	3. where we're supposed to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott meet for lunch for the first time in ten years.

**march twenty-second**

  
  


“Wait. Back the fuck up. You’re going out with Scott tomorrow, and you’re just now telling me?” Jordan asks the day before Tessa and Scott are going to meet for coffee.

“We’re not going out, Jo; we’re getting for coffee, there’s a difference!”

“That’s what they all say,” her sister mumbles, but Tessa ignores her.

“It’s really not a big deal–”

“They all say that, too.”

“Because we were friends for a long time, and, well . . . We’re both older now. We can handle this like adults, believe it or not.”

“I never said you can’t handle this like an adult, Tessa,” Jordan explains, “I just can’t believe you just decided to meet up with him without consulting Mom or I, like you usually do.”

“I don’t always do that!” Tessa protests, crossing her legs underneath her as she sits on the couch, some random television show playing in front of her.

“Okay, maybe not. But the point is, you’ve been not talking about Scott for ten years, it isn’t likely for you that this just . . . changes over night. What happened?”

“I need a date to Kaitlyn’s wedding, so I decided to make a Tinder for that, and the next thing I know, I had matched with Scott.”

Jordan laughs. “Oh, my God. You know there are plenty of guys at my work that I could have set you up with? This one guy, Fred, comes into work every day and just rants about how he doesn’t have a girlfriend. I don’t think you’d like him, though. He’s a bit self-centered.”

“Then why bring him up?” she mumbles, as Jordan keeps talking.

“Anyway, how did you match with Scott and not even know? Were you swiping through so fast that you didn’t know?”

“I honestly don’t even know how it happened. I guess I just wasn’t paying attention, and the next thing I knew, I was matched with him.”

“That’s hilarious. No offense, sis.”

“None taken, except it wasn’t particularly funny in the moment. Actually, it was terrifying. I called him after, though, and we cleared everything up.”

“Good. Just remember, I’m going to tell this story at you and Scott’s wedding.”

“Jordan! I’m not even in love with him anymore, and he sure as hell probably isn’t with me. We’re just going to be friends and see where it goes.”

“Come on, you can’t be immune to the fact that your life is like something out of a rom-com. Which isn’t a bad thing; in fact, can you send some of that my way?”

“Why? Aren’t you still with Theo? Jordan, you guys have been together forever.”

Her sister sighs. “I am, yes, but I just feel like our relationship has lost some of the spark it had when we first met. Do you know what I mean?”

“Not personally, no, but for the sake of this conversation, yes. What exactly do you mean by ‘spark?’ Like, sex?”

“That’s part of it, but Theo and I never do fun couples’ things anymore just to do them. He doesn’t buy me flowers spontaneously or take me on romantic trips for the weekend.”

“Do you want him to do things like that?” Tessa asks.

Jordan has never been a spontaneous person; when she was ten, she showed their parents her entire life plan, and has stuck to it so far to a T.

“I think, I don’t know.”

“Have you talked to him about it?”

It takes a second before her sister gives an answer. “No.”

“Well, there you go. Just talk to him, ask if you guys can have a night where you go out for dinner one night, instead of just staying at home. Make small changes to your relationship that make you happy, before you expect giant romantic gestures.”

“Wow, I should ask you for advice more often,” Jordan laughs.

“I give good advice sometimes, you know.”

“Yeah. Well, I should get going, but tell me how your date goes tomorrow!”

“It’s not a date!” Tessa yells, but Jordan hangs up the phone, cutting her off.

 

Tessa stands in front of her closet the next morning, trying to decide what she should wear.

Normally she would ask Kaitlyn for advice, but she doesn’t necessarily want her best friend to freak out and insist that this is a date, just like Jordan did.

Because it’s not, and Tessa doesn’t want it to be.

She doesn’t want to date Scott right now; they haven’t talked in ten years, and it would be awkward for her to assume that they’re going to be the best of friends (let alone in love) right from the beginning.

No, she wants to do this right: get to know her ex-best-friend again and let go of all of the negative feelings surrounding the previous years in their friendship.

He’d texted her the address of the coffee shop they’re meeting at and said that he would be there at 11 o’clock, so she leaves a little bit earlier than that.

She wonders if he’s still ten minutes late to everything, like how he was in high school, but then she remembers that they’re not in high school anymore.

_I really need to stop thinking of Scott in terms of how he was ten years ago._

When she gets there, it’s 10:59 and Scott’s already sitting in a booth on his phone, a cup of steaming coffee in front of him.

 _Not at_ all _like how he was in high school. Back then, he'd be rushing in late, but I never minded. Well, most of the time._

She takes a deep breath so as to hear her head of thoughts from the past, and approaches the booth carefully so as not to startle him. “Hey.”

His eyes light up and he quickly puts his phone away. “Tessa, hi!”

He wraps his arms around her tightly, and she hesitates for a moment before she hugs him back.

“How are you?” he asks, genuinely curious, as if he didn’t just text her last night.

“Pretty good, work’s been keeping me busy. I can’t . . . I can’t believe you’re here.”

“I can’t believe you’re on Tinder,” he replies with a laugh.

A waitress comes over to take her order, and then the conversation resumes.

She tells him how she’s looking for a date to Kaitlyn’s wedding, and how she made a Tinder for that reason.

Scott raises an eyebrow. “Have you had any luck with that?”

Tessa shrugs. “Not really. The wedding isn’t until August though, so I have time. What about you, why are you on Tinder?”

“I don’t know,” he admits, as the waitress sets Tessa’s drink down in front of her. “Charlie suggested it way back when I broke up with Clara.”

“Have you dated anyone since her?”

“Yeah, a few people, but nothing too serious. I had kind of thought Clara was it for me, you know?”

She doesn’t, has never had a serious boyfriend, but nods like she gets it.

“And then when she and I broke up, it wasn’t dramatic or anything, we just kind of realized that we weren’t working well as a couple. But I felt kind of lost, so it was about six months later that Charlie suggested I try a dating app, just to get out and meet people.”

Scott’s attractive, she thinks, not only physically, but he has a good heart and the sweetest personality of anyone she’s met, as well. It wouldn’t be hard for him to find someone, if he really wants.

“Yeah, that makes sense. That was good big brother advice. How are they doing, your brothers?”

“Charlie’s getting married next month, and Danny’s wife is pregnant for the second time. My parents have been super busy helping Charlie with the wedding and Danny with babysitting while he and his wife go to their doctor’s appointments, so they’ve been really happy with that.”

“That’s awesome. Do you think it’s weird that we’re talking again?”

Scott stops to take a sip of his coffee. “Honestly? I always wished that you’d explain why you stopped talking to me, until one day I realized that it was because you were hurt that I didn’t tell you that I was going away to school. I don’t know why it took me so long to realize that, but it did, and I’m sorry. There were so many things I wanted to say, to tell you, like when something funny happened or I saw something that made me think of you, you were the person I wanted to turn to, Tessa. And it hurt that you weren’t there, but I ultimately understood that it was my fault that it happened.”

Hesitantly, she reaches across the table and is relieved when he slides his hand into hers.

“I wanted to talk to you so many times, Scott, you have no idea. This is going to sound weird, but I felt like a part of me was missing when I stopped talking to you, and it took me a while to recognize that I missed you, that we had been friends for so long that you were in my life, and I thought you were always going to be there. I think that’s why it hurt so much, that you didn’t tell me you were going away to school. You didn’t even mention it, so it hadn’t crossed my mind that I wouldn’t get to see you every day. It wasn’t just because I was in love with you that I was so upset; it was also because you were my best friend, and I had thought that we told each other everything.”

“Tessa . . .” he whispers, his eyes softening.

“No, it’s okay, really. I mean, yeah, it wasn’t okay at first, and going to school without you that next year was so weird. I felt so alone, but then I met Kaitlyn that next year when she moved into town, and we had a small group of friends. It wasn’t the same, but it was still good.”

She doesn’t even notice she’s crying until Scott hands her a napkin, and she dabs at her eyes with it.

“You know I never really believed in fate, right?” asks Scott, instead of acknowledging the fact that she’s crying, which she appreciates. 

Tessa nods.

“Well, I hadn’t even looked at Tinder in about a year, but something compelled me to look last week. You were the first person I saw, and I haven’t looked at it since. I deleted my account, actually. I still don’t know why I looked at it, but I think we were meant to find each other again after all this time. This is definitely fate.”

“You might just be right, Scott Moir,” says Tessa with a grin.

“We should try to get coffee every Saturday morning, how does that sound?”

She nods and squeezes his hand as they smile at each other. “I think that’s a great idea.”

An hour later, as they part ways with a quick hug and a _see you next week_ , Tessa knows that they’re going to be okay. She doesn’t know what she was so worried about, seeing Scott again after all these years.

Okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. 

She was worried that he wouldn’t want to see her; that he wouldn’t understand why she let him go all of those years ago. 

But he does and he did, so it’s time for her to move forward, to let that go and learn how to be in Scott’s life again.

 

“So . . .” Jordan greets, a few hours later, and Tessa can hear the beginnings of a grin in her sister’s voice.

“Just ask, I know you want to,” she mumbles, pausing the movie that’s playing on her TV. She hadn’t been paying attention to it before Jordan called, and she definitely isn’t now.

“How was the date?” The grin is clear now.

“Jordan!” she scolds, but she laughs. “For the millionth time, this wasn’t date! But it was good, we’re going to be friends, I think.”

“You think,” her sister replies flatly. It’s not a question, yet it makes Tessa feel like she has to answer.

“Yes?”

“Sis, no offense, but you’ve always been sure of things when it comes to Scott.”

This makes Tessa pause. “What does _that_ mean?”

“Well . . . It’s just . . . Um, never mind. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. You know, something _crazy_ happened at work today!”

“Jordan.” 

Her tone is firm but not commanding, yet she hears her sister sigh on the other end of the line regardless.

Then, thankfully, Jordan says, “Everyone thought you were going to be more than friends.”

“Define _everyone_. Just you and Mom doesn’t count,” she answers with another laugh.

“It wasn’t just Mom and I, I promise. And it was way before you told me that you were in love with him. I heard Mom and Alma talking about it more than once. And Charlie asked me about it your  
sophomore year, when you and Scott went to Homecoming together –”

 _We went as_ friends, _Jordan_ , she wants to say.

“– but I know you’re going to say that you guys went as friends, and yeah, that makes sense, because it was Pre-Clara, but we all thought there was something between you. Honestly, T, when you came home that night and wouldn’t talk about it, I thought he kissed you. Now I know that he didn’t, that you wouldn’t talk about it just because you were in love with him, it makes sense.”

“Jordan, as much as I love recounting every moment of heartache from my high school career, why are we still talking about this? It’s been ten years.”

“Because you’re going to be in love with Scott again, I can just feel it.”

Tessa laughs once shortly. “What are you, some sort of fortune-teller who can see my future right in front of you?”

“No, but you’ll see. I’m your big sister, I’m always right.”

Jordan may be her big sister, but she can remember more than one occasion where she wasn’t right, and Tessa is positive that this is going to be one of those times.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Do you think that what Jordan says is true, that Tessa and Scott are going to fall in love?


	4. is this how you and i are going to be?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott are just friends.
> 
> (No, really. They are. They just don't know why no one will believe them.)

**april fourth**

  
  


Tessa’s phone buzzes early in the morning, waking her up.

She reaches for it on her nightstand, but then starts to panic when she doesn’t feel it there.

Half awake, she sits up and tries to look for her phone, but the sun is still rising, leaving the room half-shrouded in darkness.

Her phone buzzes again, and she spots it sitting atop the extra pillow on the empty side of her bed.

**Scott Moir: Four New Messages**

They’ve been texting all the time ever since rekindling their friendship, and it isn’t unusual for him to text her a few times, but even four is excessive for Scott.

 _Goodness_ , Tessa thinks as she opens her phone and looks at the messages, _he couldn’t have waited until it’s at least light outside_?

Apparently not, and each of the messages is more frantic than the last.

_Tessa._

_T. Please answer._

_The Maid of Honor in Charlie’s wedding went into labor and now she can’t be in the wedding, which is TOMORROW!_

_So, he wants to know if you’ll be in the wedding._

Her eyes skim that last message a few times before it dawns on her, and once it does, she calls Scott, who picks up almost immediately.

She doesn’t even bother greeting him. “I’ve never even _met_ Charlie’s wife, why the hell does she want me to be in her wedding?”

“I know you haven’t seen him in ten years, but Charlie still considers you part of the family. You know he’d be happy to have you in his wedding, and he and Nicole are panicking.”

Tessa squeezes her eyes shut and lets out a slow sigh. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Great! Um, okay, awesome. I’ll text Charlie and Nicole right now, but you should come over to my apartment now just–”

“Scott, it’s seven in the morning, can you calm down?”

“Tessa, my brother is getting _married_ tomorrow and I’m the Best Man! The one time they let me be Best Man, something like this happens, of course it would.”

“It’s not your fault that one of Nicole’s bridesmaids went into labor.” _Wait_. “Unless it is, of course.”

“Absolutely not, T! You know I don’t have a girlfriend or a wife or – Anyway. I’ll come pick you up. Leaving now.”

“Thank you.”

Twenty minutes later, Scott shows up at her front door, a travel mug of coffee in his hand.

“Good morning, Tessa! I’m so, so sorry that this is happening, but thanks for doing this. I’m sure Nicole and Charlie are going to be super grateful.”

She takes the coffee from him, gives him a quick hug, and then shuts the front door behind her. “Of course, I wouldn’t want something to happen like this on my wedding day and have no one be willing to step up.”

“Right. So, it’s Nicole’s sister who went into labor, and she was the Maid of Honor, but now another one of the bridesmaid’s is going to be the Maid of Honor. Charlie said that you and I are going to walk down the aisle together, so you don’t have to worry about that. In case you were.”

“The Best Man and Maid of Honor usually walk together though, don’t they?”

“Well, yeah. I don’t know why we’re not, but I’m sure you could ask Nicole if it’s too much of a problem,” he jokes as they get into the car.

She laughs, buckling her seatbelt. “It’s not, I was just curious.”

When they get to Scott’s apartment, Charlie and a woman who is probably his wife are already standing outside.

“You must be Tessa. Thank you so much for being in our wedding!” the blonde woman next to Charlie chirps. “I’m Nicole, Charlie’s fiancée. I can’t believe this is happening, and on the day before our wedding. Everyone told me that I shouldn’t have had my very pregnant sister as my Maid of Honor, but I disagreed. I guess I should’ve listened to them, eh?”

At this, Tessa can’t help but smile. Nicole has a wide smile and clear blue eyes. She seems trustworthy, and honestly, Tessa doesn’t blame her for wanting her sister in her wedding. She knows that she would want Jordan there no matter what.

“Hey, it’s your wedding day, you should be able to do what you want, right?”

Charlie looks to his wife with an adoring smile. “That’s what I told her.”

“I’m surprised you aren’t freaking out, Nicole,” Scott admits as he leads everyone inside.

“Oh, she woke me up at three this morning in tears. But I told her that Tessa would come through, or at least I hoped she would. Speaking of that, Tess, Nicole and I can’t thank you enough.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Charlie. I’m sorry it’s been so long since we talked–”

Scott’s brother holds up a hand, and she stops talking. “Don’t worry about it, seriously. We’re just happy you’re here now.”

At this, Tessa smiles and Scott catches her eye as Nicole thrusts the seafoam green bridesmaid dress into her hands.

“It’s really pretty, Nicole. I can’t wait to wear it,” Tessa says, and the bride-to-be beams at her.

“Go try it on, we have to make sure that it fits you!”

Tessa goes down the hall to the bathroom, Nicole trailing behind her.

“Okay,” says Nicole, “I’ll wait out here, and come out once the dress is on so that I can make sure it fits. You’ll tell me if it doesn’t, right?”

“Absolutely.”

Thankfully, the dress fits, and Tessa is pretty sure everyone sighs in relief at that. Nicole tells her that they bought an extra dress just in case, and that she’s very glad they did.

After they leave, Scott turns to her with a grin.

“Since it’s still really early, do you want to go to breakfast?”

“Breakfast sounds really great right now.”

They go to a restaurant not far from Scott’s apartment, one that Tessa has never been to, but that Scott has been raving about in their text messages.

“So,” she asks after they’ve been seated in a booth and are left to peruse the menu. “Are you excited for the wedding?”

“Yeah. Mostly I’m just excited to not be stressed about it anymore. I planned the bachelor party, and . . .” Scott trails off.

“Scott?” Tessa asks, eyebrows knit together.

He shakes his head and blinks a few times. “Sorry, I just remembered that I didn’t write the speech. Tessa, how could I forget the damn speech? That’s the most important part!”

She pulls a napkin out of the dispenser on the table and digs a pen out of the bottom of her purse. “Write it now. I can help you.”

He runs a hand through his hair nervously. “I don’t even know what to say, or where to start.”

“Well, what do you want to say to Charlie?”

“I guess . . . I’m really glad that he’s my brother, and that he found Nicole. They’re really cute, T, they got together in college and well, now we’re going to be at their wedding tomorrow. That’s kind of crazy. I never really thought Charlie would find someone who would complement him as much as Nicole.”

“Start with that.”

“That was good?”

He seems genuinely surprised, which makes Tessa laugh.

“Yes, Scott, it was really good. Perfect, even.”

Scott scribbles on the napkin, crossing things out and biting on the end of the pen when he can’t think of anything to say. Then, when he remembers something he wants to say, he writes as fast as he possibly can.

In the end, he fills four napkins, front and back, with things to say in his speech. When he’s done writing, he slides them across the table to Tessa, who looks up from her phone.

“Will you read them over for me?” he asks, a pleading sparkle in his eye.

“Of course. I’m glad that I could be here to help.”

“I really don’t know what I’d do without you, T. First you save Charlie’s wedding–”

“I didn’t save anyone’s wedding, not really–” she tries to protest, but he ignores her.

“–and second, you helped me with my speech. Tomorrow, we’re going to walk down the aisle together, and I can’t imagine doing that with anyone else. As friends, obviously. That’s all we are, and I don’t want that to scare you.”

At this, she lets out another laugh. “Why would that scare me?”

“I know it used to embarrass you in high school when I would compliment you or tell you that I was glad we were friends, and the last thing I want to do is embarrass you.”

She only shakes her head. “You’re not embarrassing me, Scott. Truth is, you never really were. I knew . . . I knew how many girls wanted to be friends with you back then, or even wanted something more, and I would just always remember how lucky I was to be your best friend, to be constantly complimented by you.”

He grins, and they pause the conversation to eat their breakfast.

“You know,” Scott starts, putting his empty plate on top of hers and then pushing it to the edge of the table, “You should just stay with me tonight. It would be easier, since your dress is already at my apartment, and then we could just leave for the wedding together.”

“I don’t have anything else with me, like . . . pajamas. Plus, we haven’t stayed in the same room since high school, would that be weird?”

“It’s not weird for me if it’s not weird for you. And we can run you home to grab stuff, if you want.”

“Okay.”

She doesn’t think about it before she answers, and if she had, she might’ve remembered what Jordan had said on their last phone call, about how she thinks that Tessa and Scott are going to be in love. That might have freaked her out, even though she isn’t in love with Scott and she knows that he isn’t in love with her, just because her sister believes that it’s true, and if they show up at the wedding together then everyone is going think they’re together.

 

The next morning, Tessa wakes up to the beeping of an alarm clock that isn’t her own, and it confuses her for a moment, before she sees her best friend beside her.

Scott had insisted last night that he take the couch while she sleeps in his room, but she felt too weird kicking him out of his own bed ( _besides, we used to sleep in the same bed all the time as kids, it’s not going to be weird_ ), and it took a while to get him to agree, but he did eventually.

“Scott,” she whispers, poking him in the side, “Turn off your alarm clock, it’s too loud.”

“Sorry,” he replies, and he squeezes her hand as the clock stops beeping. “You can go back to sleep, I’ll wake you up after I shower and get ready.”

“Yeah,” is all she says, and then she turns around and falls back asleep.

What feels like seconds later, she’s shaken awake.

“T, it’s time to wake up. We have a wedding to go to soon,” Scott tells her softly, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

She opens her eyes to see him smiling down at her, and Tessa returns the smile. “Yeah. It’s going to be a fun day, isn’t it?”

“Of course it is.”

The two of them get ready before heading over to Charlie and Nicole’s, where Nicole and her bridesmaids are getting ready. Scott drops her off and heads to his parents’ house, where the guys are getting ready.

“I’ll see you later, Scott. Have fun with the guys,” she tells him as she gets out of the car.

“Thanks, Tess. See you later, T!”

“See you later!” Tessa replies with a smile, shutting the door and watching as he drives away.

“I thought I suspected something between you two, that’s so cute,” Nicole comments from somewhere behind her, which makes her almost drop the dress she’s holding before she turns around.

Charlie’s fiancée is standing in the front of the closed front door, smiling as she comes down to greet Tessa. She takes the dress out of her hands.

“Oh, Scott and I – We’re not dating, we’re just friends.”

Nicole raises an eyebrow, but all she says is, “Right.”

“So, are you excited about the wedding? Nervous?”

“Um, well, I’ve been with for Charlie for a while, so it was really only a matter of time before we got married.”

_That didn’t really answer the question, but okay._

Once Tessa and Nicole are inside, they go to the living room, where the other bridesmaids don’t even glance up from where they’re doing various things: curling their hair, painting their nails, gossiping, or laughing.

“Guys,” Nicole calls, and the room quiets, “This is Tessa, she’s going to fill in for Penelope.”

There’s a chorus of _hi, Tessa_ ’s before everyone returns to what they were doing.

Tessa has never felt more out of place, and as for as nice and warm as Nicole seemed yesterday, she’s nothing but cold to Tessa now ( _Is it just because she’s nervous about today_? Tessa wonders). Nicole seems too busy to introduce her to anyone, and, judging by the glares they’re all giving her, she doesn’t see why she should introduce herself.

So, she settles into a corner and texts Scott in-between curling her hair. She’d painted her nails this morning.

“Don’t worry about them, they’re just jealous,” a soft voice comes from beside her, and Tessa turns to see a tall red-haired woman looking at her.

“Jealous?” she repeats dumbly, and the woman sits in the empty chair next to her. 

She’s already dressed, and she begins to paint her nails, taking her time before she answers. “I’m Aimee, and yeah. They’ve all wanted to be with Scott for years. All of them have known Nicole from college or work, so they’ve known him a while. They think he’s hot, and then, before you got here, Nicole told us how she thought that you and him are dating.”

“We’re not,” Tessa answers immediately, “Scott and I are just friends. That’s all we’ve been for a long, long time.”

Aimee gives her a ghost of a smile. “It’s nice to have friends that are guys. My husband and I hated each other before we got together.”

“Really? How long have you been together?”

“It’ll be five years this September. We got married last year, and it was the best day of my life.”

She smiles. “That’s amazing, I hope I find someone like that, someday.”

“You will,” Aimee replies matter-of-factly, as if they’ve known each other for five years instead of five minutes.

“Uh, thanks.”

The ceremony goes well, if “goes well” means that the ring bearer drops the pillow he’s carrying and dropping the rings, stopping the ceremony for ten minutes as everyone crawls around on the grass to look for them; the flower girl crying because she doesn’t want to “throw the petals on the ground and hurt them”; the friend officiating the wedding gets Charlie’s middle name wrong; and lastly, Nicole’s young cousin accidentally raises his hand when the crowd is asked if anyone objects.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, and everyone laughs like it’s funny.

The whole time, Tessa tries not to meet Scott’s eye, and, for the most part, she succeeds.

When they walk back down the aisle after Charlie and Nicole, their eyes meet, and they burst into laughter.

“The flower girl was pretty cute,” she says, laughing, “And the cousin was amusing, but if he had done that at my wedding, I wouldn't have found it very funny.”

“Yeah,” Scott answers as he grins, “I don’t think Nicole is very happy.”

“What can you do, though? None of it’s her fault.”

“That’s true. It’s not anyone’s fault, really. And no day can go perfectly, as much as you plan for it to.”

 

Tessa sits down at an empty table hours later, at the reception. She doesn’t normally wear heels, so her feet hurt, and she wants to get off her feet for a while.

“Tessa, it’s so nice to see you again.”

She looks up to see Alma, Scott’s mother, glancing down at her.

“Alma! It’s been a long time, how are you?” She stands and hugs the older woman, who hesitates before hugging her back.

“I’m good, Charlie and Nicole had a nice wedding, don’t you think?”

Alma was like a second mother to Tessa throughout the time that she and Scott were friends, and, even though it’s been ten years since she last saw her, she still feels like she could tell Alma anything and she would listen.

“Absolutely,” Tessa agrees, “it was beautiful.”

“You and Scott looked lovely walking down that aisle together,” Scott’s mother says after a long moment.

Tessa seriously feels like she should wear a neon sign above her head that screams _I’m NOT dating (or in love with) Scott Moir_.

But even then, she doesn’t know if it would help.

She takes a long time to answer, and all she says is, “Thanks, Alma.”

As if he heard them talking about him, Scott gravitates towards where Tessa and his mother are sitting.

“Hey Mom, mind if I steal Tess for a dance?”

Alma waves at the two of them, and he looks to Tessa for an answer.

“Please,” is all she says, and then he’s leading her out onto the dance floor, swaying with her as the DJ plays a slow song.

She leans up to whisper in his ear. It’s so loud in here that they’re going to either have to shout at each other or quietly, privately talk to each other, and Tessa goes for the second option.

“I meant to tell you earlier,” she whispers, “but your speech was really good. I don’t think anyone could tell that it was written yesterday.”

Scott grins lopsidedly as he beams at her. “Yeah?”

He’s whispering too, and his breath is hot on her skin.

“Absolutely.”

“Well, thankfully I had help from the best friend ever.”

She can’t help but grin. “Hell yeah you did.”

“Are you having a good time? I feel like I’ve hardly seen you.”

“Everyone thinks we’re together,” she blurts out. “Like, in love. And all of the bridesmaids were jealous because Nicole told them that she thinks we’re dating.”

Scott laughs. “Seriously? Did you tell them that we’re just friends?”

“I didn’t talk to them, and as for everyone else . . . Somehow I don’t think they believe it. Even Jordan told me the last time we talked that she thinks we’re going to fall in love. Why does this keep happening, Scott?”

“I don’t know,” he replies exasperatedly, talking at normal volume now, “I don’t understand why we can’t just be friends.”

At that moment, the music cuts out, and since he said that last bit when everyone stopped talking, it sounds like Scott had been rejecting Tessa.

She can feel everyone’s eyes on them, and she realizes then that they haven’t stopped swaying, either.

“We’re not – He’s not – For the millionth time, Scott and I are just friends,” she explains, feeling her face get red as no one answers.

“Yeah, right!” someone shouts. The room fills with noise again at that, and there’s nowhere for them to go, because now the people who didn’t think they were together before definitely do now.

“Can all of the single ladies head to the dance floor? It’s time for the bouquet toss!” the DJ announces, and suddenly Scott is pulled away from her as people flock to the dance floor.

“Alright, ladies! Nicole is going to throw the bouquet on the count of three! Three!”

Tessa tries to leave, even though she’s single and technically should be there, but there are people blocking her from all sides.

“Two!”

She stays rooted to the spot and hopes that the bouquet doesn’t come anywhere near her.

“One!”

The bouquet sails through the air, right towards the two ladies in front of Tessa, who has never felt more relieved.

_Even if you do catch it, it doesn’t mean anything._

At the last second, the two ladies dive out of the way as the bouquet lands right at Tessa’s feet.

_Shit._

Silence stretches on as Tessa reaches down and picks up the bouquet.

“And now,” the DJ says, not giving anyone any more time to react, “It’s time for Charlie to throw the garter!”

Normally, the groom throws the garter that his wife wore, but Charlie and Nicole had opted to throw one that was different than the whole Nicole had been wearing.

Tessa shuffles out of the way as the guys crowd onto the now-vacant dance floor.

“Don’t worry,” Scott tells her when she reaches him, “I’m not going out there. Can you imagine if I caught that and everyone expects us to get married? We’d never hear the end of it.”

She’s about to answer when Charlie sees his brother standing off to the side and calls, “Scott! Get over here!”

 _Please, Scott, don't catch it_ , Tessa thinks, instantly feeling bad for not wanting him to catch it. 

But, as he’d said, the two of them would never hear the end of it, she thinks, because a lot of people think that the two who catch the bouquet and the garter are going to get married.

Charlie throws the garter, and time slows down as it lands on Scott’s shoulder.

 _Oh, no_.

Alma catches Tessa’s eye as the guys clear the dance floor, a smile on her face.

“Hey,” Scott says when he reaches her, “Do you want to get out of here? I really don’t feel like being embarrassed again.”

“Would everyone think it’s suspicious if we leave together?” Tessa asks, and she finds that she feels nervous, for some reason.

Her best friend shrugs. “I don’t really care. We know that we’re not in love, right?”

The _we’re not in love_ makes her pause, and suddenly all she wants to do is leave immediately.

“Right. Let’s go, then.”

“Do you want to just stay at my place tonight? It’s closer, and it’s already past midnight.”

“Yeah,” Tessa answers.

“You okay, T? You seem quiet.”

“I’m okay. It’s just . . . starting to get awfully annoying that people can’t believe that we’re friends.”

“What do they all think is so bad about being friends?” Scott questions, as they get into the car.

“I don’t know! We haven’t even been back in each other’s lives for a month, and even then, we’re _just_ friends, aren’t we?”

“Yes,” he agrees without hesitation.

“I just don’t get it. Also, why are people so obsessed with us getting together?”

“I couldn’t tell you, Tess.”

Tessa’s about to reply, but a knock on the window stops her, and she looks over to see Charlie staring at them, one eyebrow raised. Scott rolls down the window.

“I thought you guys left,” is all he says.

“We are,” they answer in unison.

“Leaving,” Scott amends, with a quick glance at Tessa, who nods. “We’re leaving right now.”

“Okay. Anyway, I just came over here to say that Tessa forgot her purse, and I have it here.”

She takes her purse from him, not even realizing that she didn’t have it in their quick haste to leave the wedding, and then he leaves them alone.

“This isn’t going to ruin our friendship, is it?” Tessa asks later, as she and Scott are lying on his bed, side-by-side. “Everything that happened tonight?”

“You mean, what happened at the wedding? No, T, it’s not going to ruin our friendship.”

“Right, because none of it was our fault. It was just, well, I don’t know. But it wasn’t us.”

“It wasn’t us,” he agrees with a tired smile, and then he turns out the bedside light. “Goodnight, Tessa. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, Scott, see you in the morning.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)


	5. here we are, just the two of us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott have a talk about relationships.

**april sixth**

  
  


“Mom heard from Alma that you and Scott left Charlie’s wedding together,” Jordan singsongs over the phone the next morning just after she gets home from Scott’s.

Tessa rolls her eyes, because she doesn’t think there is any other reaction.

She begins to wonder if she should Google, _how to be friends with someone your whole family wants you to date_.

“Yeah,” she answers, “because we’re _friends_.”

“I don’t know, Tess.”

“What, do you think I’d lie?”

“Alma said that you two walked down the aisle together.”

“I don’t know how else to prove it to you. Set me up on a blind date with one of the guys that you work with, but not that self-centered one, I think you said his name was Fred?”

Jordan laughs. “Yeah, _definitely_ not Fred. The other day he was mad because he spilled his own coffee. Seriously, who’s like that?”

“I have no idea,” Tessa mumbles.

“Anyway, I’m sure I can find you someone. Can we bet on it, though?”

“Bet on what, Jordan?”

“That you’ll actually give him a chance and you’re not just doing this to prove that you don’t like Scott.”

She fights the urge to roll her eyes again. “I don’t like Scott, as I’ve said a million times before. Yes, I’ll actually give Mystery Man a chance. But I don’t want to bet on it.”

“Alright, but is it okay if I give him your number so that he can text you?”

“Isn’t the point of a blind date to not have talked beforehand?”

Her sister sighs. “Fine. I won’t give him your number.”

 

Four days later, Tessa regrets letting Jordan set her up on a blind date.

She wishes that she didn’t have to do this, because the fact that she’s going on a date to prove to her family that she isn’t in love with her best friend is more than a little ridiculous.

The fact that she and Scott aren’t dating is not that hard of a concept for their families to grasp: Tessa and Scott have been friends for a long time (not including the ten years that they didn’t talk, of course), and that’s all they’re going to be.

_Just because I happened to have feelings for him in high school and I never acted on them doesn’t mean that I still have feelings for him. It’s been ten years. This is absurd. I shouldn’t have to prove what I may or may not be feeling to my family, because my love life is only mine, and they don’t have any control over it. Not to mention it isn’t any of their business_.

Her phone rings just as she’s getting off of work, and one glance at the screen tells her that her sister is calling, so she picks it up.

“Hello?”

“His name is Basil, and you’re meeting him at eight on Friday night.”

Tessa’s silent for a second. “Wait. You’re serious? You really want me to go on a date to prove that I’m not with Scott?”

“Hey, sis, it was your idea, not mine.”

_Damn. I was really hoping that Jordan hadn't been serious._

“Besides,” Jordan continues, “it sounds like you’re starting to already have doubts. Basil is nice, except his name could be better. That’s not his fault, though. He’s cute, I think you’ll like him.”

“Okay, you sound sure, so I’m going to trust you.”

“Good, you should do that.”

“Did you ever talk to Theo?”

“Oh, yeah! We’re okay, Tessa. We’re working on compromise, which is something that’s been really good for us.”

“That’s great, Jordan, really.”

“It is, isn’t it? Well, I’m just getting off work, so I’m going to have to go. Call me on Friday if you need outfit ideas!” her sister chips, and Tessa can’t help but smile.

“Will do.”

She stands in front of her closet Thursday night, trying to decide what to wear. Tessa decided after she talked to her sister that she isn’t going to call Jordan for help, because she’s 26 years old; she should be able to get herself ready for a date, even if she hasn’t been on one in a while.

_You can do this_ , she tells herself, pulling a pale pink sweater dress off of the hanger and nodding. _You can prove that you’re not in love with Scott_.

It’s April, and she’d checked the weather forecast for tomorrow before she even started looking for clothes. It’s supposed to rain, and Tessa can’t decide if that’s a good or bad thing.

In the movies, dates in the rain always have this magical quality to them, but she doesn’t know if that’s because it isn’t real or because she’s too much of a romantic.

She would like to get kissed in the rain, she thinks. See if it’s as romantic in real life as it is in the movies.

Her last boyfriend hadn’t been romantic at all, so she knows she doesn’t want someone like that. He had just scoffed whenever she would suggest that they get dressed up and go out for a nice dinner. She didn’t suggest it a lot, just when she didn’t want to sit around the table in silence and then watch Netflix.

Needless to say, she wasn’t surprised when she broke up with him four months later.

It does hurt though, the fact that all of her friends are happily married with either children (or, at the very least, a cat), and she’s not. 

Not only is she not married, she isn’t even in a relationship, hasn’t been in one that’s lasted longer than a year. And she doesn’t know why this keeps happening to her. 

“ _You should just keep trying, don’t give up on love_ ,” Kaitlyn had said several phone calls ago right after Andrew proposed, “ _it’ll come to you when you least expect it. And I don’t mean that you should settle for someone, but you really need to put yourself out there more, Tess. If you want to find Mr. Right, you’re going to have to go through a few Mr. Wrong’s._ ”

The thing is, Tessa has had her fair share of “Mr. Wrong’s.” Even if she only goes on a handful of dates with them, she can just feel that they’re not right for her, they’re not what she’s looking for. They don’t have that instant connection, that fairy tale love story that she wants so badly.

She wants a meet-cute; she wants to stand in front of a cute guy in line when she gets her morning coffee. She wants to accidentally run into a guy, and then, she’ll stand up, and when they lock eyes, she’ll know.

As the saying goes, when you know, you know. But how is she supposed to know? Is it a feeling?

_Maybe I should give guys more of a chance, because how do I know what I’m looking for if all I’m doing is basing what I want or don’t want off of a feeling _?__

Tessa can’t help but wonder if this blind date will be good for her.

__

Jordan texts her the address of the restaurant that where she’s meeting Basil a few hours before they’re meeting, and Tessa is nervous.

If she’s never seen a picture of him, how is she supposed to know what he looks like? If she doesn’t know what he looks like, how is she supposed to find him?

And then there are the other things she’s nervous about, like what if he lives with his mom, has a kid (she likes kids, but she’s not ready to parent someone else’s) or a crazy ex-girlfriend? He could chew with his mouth open, which isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, but it’s a pet-peeve of Tessa’s. 

What if he’s a horrible guy, even though Jordan had said that she thinks she’s going to like him?

_Tessa, calm down. You haven’t even met him_ , she reminds herself.

__

The nerves haven’t really calmed down by the time she gets to the restaurant, and by that time, she’s so nervous that she feels like she should just cancel the date.

__

__But if she cancels, then Jordan will probably assume that it was because of Scott, and Tessa would never hear the end of it._ _

__

__She’s standing in the lobby, waiting, when she hears, “Are you Tessa?”_ _

__

__A tall, brown haired man is standing in front of her, wearing thick, black glasses and a t-shirt that has characters from a movie that she vaguely recognizes printed on it._ _

__

___Scott would instantly know who those characters are_ , she thinks, and then, horrified that she thought of her best friend (who is pretty much the whole reason she’s on this date in the first place), she pushes his name out of her mind._ _

__

__“Yeah,” she answers, smiling slightly._ _

__

__“Cool, I’m Basil. Let’s go tell the hostess, shall we?”_ _

__

__“Okay.”_ _

__

__After the hostess leads them to their table, Basil pulls out her chair for her with a small, embarrassed smile._ _

__

__“Sorry,” he says, still sheepishly grinning, “my mom instilled it in me from a young age to be somewhat of a gentleman.”_ _

__

__“Thank you,” she replies, sitting down, “I don’t think you should apologize for that. I’m sure a lot of people appreciate that. I thought it was nice, actually.”_ _

__

__The grin turns from sheepish to delighted. “Really?”_ _

__

__“Yeah.”_ _

__

__He laughs ( _it’s wrong_ , her brain nags, _his laugh is all wrong; it isn’t Scott’s_ , and again, she tries to tell herself not to think of her best friend), and, throughout dinner, Tessa finds that she’s having a really nice time. Basil laughs at her stupid jokes and tells some good jokes of his own._ _

__

___Jordan was right, he's nice_ , she wonders later, as he’s telling a story about his sister. _I'm just not sure about him_._ _

__

__“And so, I said to her, ‘No, you should break up with her. If she’s going to try to get you to move away to college with her and you don’t want to, your girlfriend should respect that.’”_ _

__

__Tessa nods. “Yeah, that makes sense. Did she?”_ _

__

__“Yeah, they broke up a few weeks later.”_ _

__

__She frowns. “Oh. Was she okay? Your sister, I mean.”_ _

__

__“She wasn’t too upset about it, which was surprising. They’d been together for two years, and they’d been through so much, you know?”_ _

__

__Tessa doesn’t answer, she just nods._ _

__

__As he’s chewing his dinner, she discovers that he chews loudly, smacking his lips together._ _

__

___That’s disgusting. Scott would never do that_._ _

__

__Then she stops. _Wait, what? Why do I keep thinking about Scott_?_ _

__

__She doesn’t even try to come up with an explanation for that, because she truly doesn’t know._ _

__

__“So,” he starts, as they’re standing outside of the restaurant in the chilly April air, a little while later. “Can I see you again?”_ _

__

__This makes her pause, and Tessa wonders if she even wants to see Basil again._ _

__

__He’s nice, yes, so theoretically, there _isn’t_ a reason why she shouldn’t want to see him again, but she also kept thinking about Scott throughout the night, and that’s something she needs to figure out for herself. It’s not fair to Basil to not be the only guy on her mind._ _

__

__“I’m sorry, Basil. You’re really nice, but I just . . .”_ _

__

__He gives her a tight smile. “Right, okay. Well, I’ll see you around, Tessa.”_ _

__

__“Yeah, see you around.”_ _

__

__She can’t help but feel bad as they part ways, but when she sits down to watch episodes of The Office later that night, she knows she made the right choice._ _

__

__Halfway through the first episode she’s watching, her phone rings. She knows without even looking at it that it’s Jordan, probably wanting to know how the date went._ _

__

__She doesn’t answer, but then Jordan calls again, and a few more times after that._ _

__

__Tessa’s phone is ringing for the seventh time when she finally sighs and answers._ _

__

__“Hello?” she greets, annoyed._ _

__

__“So, how was the date? Did you discover that you’re really in love with Scott?” her sister asks, and she can see the smirk on her face._ _

__

__She answers after a second’s passed. “No.”_ _

__

__“You hesitated.”_ _

__

__“I’m allowed to take time to think, Jordan,” Tessa snaps._ _

__

__Jordan snickers. “Okay, okay.”_ _

__

__“It’s not funny! I’m really fucking sick of you not letting up on this whole Scott thing, so if you could just _stop_ , that would be really nice!”_ _

__

__In reality, she isn’t mad at Jordan. (Well, she is, but only a little bit, but only because all she talks about is how Tessa should be in love with Scott.)_ _

__

__No, Tessa’s mostly mad at herself, because she feels like she really is in love with Scott, but she’s been denying it for so long that she can’t tell Jordan; her sister wouldn’t ever stop talking about it, that much is certain._ _

__

__She’s not sure yet, though._ _

__

___Do I only think that I have feelings for him because everyone tells me that I do, or do I actually_?_ _

__

__“Sorry, Tessa,” her sister whispers._ _

__

__“I-It’s okay, Jordan. I just . . . I don’t know.”_ _

__

__“I get why you’re annoyed, I just never thought about it, I guess. And for that, I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t have been so dismissive of your feelings.”_ _

__

__“No,” she agrees, “you shouldn’t have, but it’s okay, Jordan. I promise.”_ _

__

__“Okay, well, have a goodnight.”_ _

__

__“Goodnight.”_ _

__

__

__

__The next day is Saturday, which means that it’s Scott and Tessa’s weekly coffee day._ _

__

__She really considers cancelling, thinks about it as she gets ready that morning, but ultimately decides not to. She likes going to get coffee with Scott, and it’s not his fault that everyone keeps saying that they have feelings for each other when they don’t._ _

__

__“Hey,” he says, when he sees her, and he smiles as he slides into the booth across from her. “How’s your weekend been?”_ _

__

__Tessa shrugs. “Jordan tried to set me up with this guy that she works with.”_ _

__

__Scott raises an eyebrow as the waitress brings their orders. Tessa had ordered when she first got here about five minutes ago, after he’d texted that he was running late._ _

__

__“Oh? How was that?”_ _

__

__“His name was Basil,” is all she says._ _

__

__“Like the spice? Was he nice, at least?” Then he pauses to laugh. “I promise I didn’t mean to make that rhyme.”_ _

__

__She laughs, too, although because he rhymed, and it always makes her laugh when people rhyme things unintentionally. She definitely doesn’t laugh for any other reason. “He was okay, I guess.”_ _

__

__“Okay is better than bad, right?” Scott asks with a grin._ _

__

__“I guess so, but not necessarily what I want to say after going on a date.”_ _

__

__“True, true.”_ _

__

__The two of them sit in silence for a few moments, until Tessa says, “Have you gone on any dates recently?”_ _

__

__“Not recently, but within the last two months or so, yeah. There was this really nice girl I was seeing for a while; her name was Laura. But she moved to Los Angeles and I realized that I didn’t want to do long distance and we hadn’t dated long enough for me to move with her, not that I would want to. So, we just kind of . . .”_ _

__

__“Let each other go?”_ _

__

__Scott gives a content smile. “Yeah, something like that.”_ _

__

__“It’s sad, you know,” she finds herself saying, “When you’re with someone and it doesn’t work out the way you thought that it would.”_ _

__

__“Of course, but that’s part of life. You ultimately end up with the person that you’re supposed to be with, or you’re with a bunch of people and none of them are right for you. That’s just how it goes.”_ _

__

__“Exactly. The right person isn’t someone you can search for, they just come into your life one day and you realize, _that’s it_ , that’s _what I’ve been looking for_.”_ _

__

__Tessa’s best friend nods and takes a sip of his coffee. “It’s okay if you don’t find anyone, either. Both of our families put so much pressure on that, but it’s perfectly fine if you don’t want to date right now or you don’t find someone to date. I feel like we forget that.”_ _

__

__“Yeah, especially since all of my friends are married or in a relationship. It sucks being the only one that isn’t, when they all know that they have a date to Kaitlyn’s wedding or, well, not even that. They have someone to come home to every night, that loves and supports them no matter what. And I want that. I don’t know why it’s so hard for me to find.”_ _

__

__“I think,” Scott starts, his tone cautious so as not to offend her, “You need to stop looking, and that’s when it’ll come to you.”_ _

__

__She shakes her head, but stops when she thinks, _he’s absolutely right, and I shouldn’t keep looking_._ _

__

__“You look like you had some sort of epiphany,” he remarks with a grin._ _

__

__Tessa blinks. “I mean, I never thought about that before, how I’m not finding love because I’m looking for it.”_ _

__

__Scott laughs. “I know, T, I’m a genius. You don’t have to tell me.”_ _

__

__“Of course, I don’t,” she says, rolling her eyes._ _

__

__His phone buzzes then, and he glances at it before his eyebrows knit together, like he’s confused._ _

__

__“What’s wrong?” Tessa asks._ _

__

__When his eyes meet hers, he looks like he’d forgotten that she’s still sitting in front of him._ _

__

__“Oh, it was my mom. I forgot that we have a family dinner tonight. Speaking of which, I should probably get home.”_ _

__

__“Okay.”_ _

__

__“Sorry.” Guilt is painted in clear strokes across his face, but it clears when she covers his hand with hers._ _

__

__Tessa smiles. “Scott, it’s okay, I understand.”_ _

__

__“It just . . . feels like there’s more that we should talk about, but I don’t know why. I’ll see you next week, Tess.”_ _

__

__He leaves before she can answer, his mostly-full coffee mug still on the table._ _

__

__The thought comes to her only when she's been sitting alone for half an hour; the waitress has already come and gone twice, not to mention that her tea has long grown cold._ _

__

__Still, when the thought strikes, she doesn't even know why she's surprised. She can feel the bewilderment all the way to the tips of her toes, sailing through her as quickly as a bolt of lightning, and Tessa's glad that no one is around to see her look so surprised._ _

__

___Scott was right; I don't need to look for love anymore because it's been right in front of me this whole time_._ _

__

__She knows what the astonishment she's feeling now is: the realization that she's falling for her best friend._ _

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, Tessa finally came to terms with her feelings. It only took a little while ;)
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	6. i'm not ready to say that i love you (but it'll come soon)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa deals with her feelings for Scott.

**april twenty-first**

  
  


It’s the Saturday after Tessa realized that she’s in love with Scott and she’s on her way to meet him for their weekly coffee.

They haven’t really talked, at least not about anything serious, since she’d revealed that Jordan set her up with Basil, just sending a few texts about their day. Scott had sent her a picture of a cat that he thought was funny, but that’s been about it.

She doesn’t know what to think of the fact that they haven’t really texted, but as she drives along, squinting to see through the rain, she realizes that there’s nothing there to think about.

The rain is still falling in heavy, unstoppable sheets as she turns into a parking spot and puts her car in park. 

She’s not sad, she just doesn’t want to keep things from Scott. They’ve had an unspoken agreement since becoming friends again that they would try to not keep things from each other, but she knows that she isn’t ready to tell him how she feels.

Tessa isn’t sure she’ll ever be ready to tell him. She doesn’t want to ruin what they have, and she knows that Scott wouldn’t either.

She knows that there’s things they don’t talk about. Sure, the two of them have apologized for everything that happened ten years ago, but that’s still an entire decade that they haven’t been in each other’s lives. You can’t just erase that, no matter how desperately Tessa wishes that she could.

Their friendship has been so carefully woven back together using both the broken fragments that had been left behind ten years ago and all of the new memories between them. 

One snag in the thread, and it’ll all go unraveling.

As rain pounds on the pavement and the cars around her and the radio plays on low, Tessa leans back in her seat, her eyes closed, and thinks about how she can figure this out.

 _“You need to stop looking, and that’s when it’ll come to you_ ,” Scott had said last week, and now she can’t help but see the irony in that. 

The moment she stopped looking for love, there it was.

Twisting around in her seat, Tessa reaches for her umbrella. It’s just out of reach so she unbuckles her seatbelt, and her fingers brush the handle and she thinks _yes, I’ve almost got it_ – 

A loud knock sounds on her passenger-side window, and she’s so startled that her other hand grabs onto the first thing she reaches, which just so happens to be the lever that pushes her seat back.

The seat falls backward quicker than she expects, not giving her time to react, so now she’s lying on her stomach.

A few more knocks come, more urgent than the first, and Tessa struggles to get herself into a sitting position.

She finally does, having given up on reaching for her umbrella, and she can see Scott gesturing wildly for her to unlock the door. 

Instead of doing that, she reaches over and opens it, and he slides into the seat and closes the door all in one motion.

“Holy shit,” he greets breathlessly, his hair flat with rain. “It’s really raining out there.”

She’s overcome with the urge to run her fingers through his wet hair that she doesn’t do anything but stare at him for several long moments.

 _Get ahold of yourself, Tessa_.

She blinks, smiles at him. “Yeah, I know. I wasn’t prepared at all.”

“I can see that,” Scott raises an eyebrow and chuckles. “Did you accidentally put the seat down?”

“Something like that,” she mumbles, her cheeks flaming with embarrassment.

“Anyway, I was thinking we could go somewhere different today. How does breakfast sound?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. You better tell me where we’re going so I can get us there, though.”

He names a breakfast place that Kaitlyn has been raving about for months, so that’s where they go.

They’re sitting in a booth a little while later, him across from her, like always, except the setting is different and they’re eating breakfast instead of just drinking coffee.

Mostly they’ve been eating in silence, which Tessa thinks is good. It’s good to just _be_ with someone, and she forgets that a lot, she thinks.

“What does the rest of your weekend look like?” Scott asks, pushing his clean plate away from him.

Tessa finishes her croissant, swallows before she answers. “I think Kaitlyn, myself, and some of the bridesmaids are hanging out tonight.”

“Oh, really? That’s kind of funny. Andrew and I are hanging out with some of the groomsmen tonight.”

For a moment, she forgets that Andrew and Scott were best friends in high school, and, considering they’re still talking, she wouldn’t be surprised if they still are. “Yeah, that _is_ pretty ironic.”

He tilts his head and stares at her. “You okay, Tess?”

At this, she stiffens. _He doesn’t know that I’m in love with him, does he_?

There’s _no_ way.

“Absolutely, why wouldn’t I be?” she answers, thinking that she hears the slightest tremble in her voice.

“Oh, I don’t know,” Scott shrugs. “Just curious.”

A second of awkward silence stretches on for an eternity between them, and then her best friend slides out of the booth.

“I’ll be back,” he says, standing, and he turns away and disappears before she can even respond.

Tessa sits alone for a little while, and then Scott comes back. 

He smiles at her as he sits down again. “Sorry about that, I had to go to the bathroom. Oh, and I paid our bill.”

Her eyebrows raise. “What? It was two separate receipts; did you swipe it off the table when I wasn’t looking?”

She means it as a joke, but he still flushes and doesn’t meet her eye.

“Scott!” she chastises playfully. She pulls a napkin from the dispenser beside her and throws it at him.

“Oh, Tessa, it’s so on,” he declares, as the napkin sails through the air, coming in her direction.

She manages to swat it away with a laugh. 

Scott laughs, too, which causes him to accidentally kick her under the table, so she nudges his leg with her foot, and then they’re playing footsies.

It ends a few minutes later when the waiter passes by the table, giving the two of them a look.

“Well, that was fun,” Scott says as they shrug on their jackets.

“Yeah,” she replies, smiling, and she’s so surprised when he takes her hand that she almost pulls away.

He gives her a look that she pretends not to see and tries to ignore the way her heart flutters.

 _It’s totally, completely normal to hold hands with your best friend_ , she reminds herself.

Scott lets go of her hand only to get in the car, reaches for it again when she rests her hand on the center console.

The air between them changes suddenly, and all Tessa can think about is how much she’d like nothing more in this moment than to tangle her hands in his hair and kiss him.

He’d left his car at the coffee shop they usually meet at, so she’s driving him back there.

“Well,” Scott says, as they’re driving back, their fingers still laced together between them, “Maybe I’ll see you tonight.”

“What do you mean?”

“Since both Kaitlyn and Andrew, plus their friends are going out tonight, we’ll probably see each other.”

“Oh, right. So, I guess I’ll probably see you tonight,” she says, and a few minutes later, she pulls into an empty spot, right next to Scott’s car.

He pauses before he gets out of the car, as if he wants to say something. “Yeah, see you, Tess.”

She waits for him to get into his car and wonders why he left so quickly, but then she leaves before he notices she’s still here.

 

A few hours later, she’s getting ready to go. Kaitlyn had told her that everyone is just going to hang out at her and Andrew’s apartment, but Tessa feels like she should dress up at least a little.

She puts on a black pantsuit that she'd found in the back of her closet and does her hair into a high ponytail before she starts on her makeup. A smoky eye and red lipstick should be good, she thinks.

Several minutes later, her phone buzzes, and she glances at it as she swipes on a bold, red lipstick.

It’s Kaitlyn. _You’re still coming over, right_?

 _Yeah_ , she replies. _Why?_

 _Just checking_ comes the response, but that’s definitely a little vague, even for Kaitlyn.

It’s still raining as she pulls into Kaitlyn and Andrew’s driveway an hour later, and Tessa makes sure to actually grab her umbrella this time.

Thankfully she doesn’t accidentally put her seat back, so it doesn’t take her long to get out of the car and up to the front door, where she knocks and waits for Kaitlyn to answer.

“ _Damn_ , Tess,” Kaitlyn grins when she sees her, “Who are you trying to impress tonight?”

“No one,” she answers airily, even though she knows that that’s absolutely not true.

Her friend doesn’t question her, just leads her through the apartment to the living room, where all of their friends are sitting around, glasses in hand and laughing at a story Carmen, one of their friends from college who’s in the wedding, is telling.

“And so, I obviously started _crying_ , because my girlfriend was proposing to me, and I couldn’t handle it. This guy actually had the audacity to tell me to stop crying, but I was so focused on Laura that I didn’t even notice!”

Carmen wraps her arm around her fiancée’s shoulders and presses a light kiss to her cheek.

Laura grins as her cheeks color pink, and then she grins as she notices Tessa. “Tess, oh my god. You look great! Why are you all dressed up?”

Tessa shrugs. “I don’t know, I just felt like it.”

“Do you want anything to drink?” Kaitlyn asks, and Tessa nods.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Anything specific?”

“Surprise me, I guess.”

Kaitlyn hands her a drink a few minutes later, after someone else decides to tell a different story about something that happened in college.

It’s fruity and delicious. She likes it, so she flashes a thumbs-up in Kaitlyn’s direction.

“So, when did you and Laura first meet, Carmen?” Kaitlyn’s cousin, Anna, asks about an hour later.

“Well,” Laura starts, and there’s an adoring look on her face as she glances at Carmen. “We were in an art class our freshman year of college, and we sat next to each other. I thought she was really cool, and we got to be really good friends, until . . .”

“Until we kissed one night after class. It was a night class and we lived near each other, so we’d always walk home together. About a year after we first met, I asked if I could kiss her. Laur kissed me instead, and, well, that was that.”

“All it took was one kiss and she knew,” Laura teases, and the other women laugh.

“That’s not a lie,” Carmen replies, rolling her eyes as she joins in on the laughter.

“Now we just have to get Tessa a boyfriend,” Laura quips, and Tessa shakes her head.

“Laur, I don’t know–” she tries to answer, but Anna interrupts her.

“How’s the adoption process going, guys?”

Laura and Carmen, who have been trying to adopt for what feels like forever now, share a look that’s dripping with love. They start whispering to each other, are about to answer when all of a sudden, Kaitlyn claps her hands loudly.

“Guys!” she exclaims, looking up from her phone with a grin and a sparkling glint in her eye. “Andrew and the guys are coming back.”

All Tessa thinks is _Scott_ , and she can’t help the smile that spreads itself across her face. 

She’s only had the one drink plus a bunch of water, so she knows that her feelings are real and not because she’s had too much to drink.

“Uh oh,” Anna teases, “Looks like Tessa’s pretty excited about that.”

The grin falls from her face and she shakes her head again. “No, actually, not really.”

Her phone lights up with a text then, and she sees that it’s from Scott.

 _Guess I'm seeing you tonight after all_ it reads, and the smile returns.

 _Yeah, I guess so_ , she replies, trying to act cool and not at all like butterflies have kickstarted in her stomach.

 

Scott has been here for about half an hour and he and Tessa have hardly talked.

He greeted her with a quick _hey, T_ when he first got here, but so far, that’s been it.

So, she supposes they haven’t really talked at all.

She’s not mad about it, but a little disappointed. She feels silly and like she’s over-dressed.

But then he comes over to her, sits right next to her on the loveseat in Kaitlyn and Andrew’s living room. 

“Hey, Tess. Sorry I haven’t really been around. One of Andrew’s friends is in town until tomorrow and all of us were hanging out with him.”

“It’s okay,” she answers, and when she looks at him, she takes in his genuinely-sorry look; his brown eyes are filled with unsaid apologies and his mouth is turned down in a frown.

“Still, I feel bad. You look great, by the way. Do you normally wear red lipstick?”

She shakes her head, giggling. And then she stops.

 _Tessa, you just_ giggled _in front of Scott. What are you, a teenager?_

“What’s wrong?” Scott asks, his eyes wide.

“Nothing, I . . .” she trails off and they stare at each other.

“Hey,” he breaks the silence with an easy grin as he pokes her in the side. “How’s the not-being-in-love thing going?”

“Oh.” Tessa’s taken aback slightly by the question, and chews on her bottom lip thoughtfully. “It’s good, I guess. I don’t really know, it’s not like I was in love with anyone before I decided to stop looking, you know?”

 _That’s a complete lie, Scott_.

Something akin to disappointment flickers across his face so quickly that she doesn’t notice it.

Her best friend scratches the back of his neck and doesn’t meet her gaze. “Oh, right. Yeah, that makes sense.”

The air changes between them again for the second time in one day, and her throat is tight with all of the words she hasn’t said.

“Yeah.”

They sit in silence.

In another part of the house, someone turns on music, and she can hear the bass line all the way in the living room, even though the rest of the song is faint.

Tessa and Scott look at each other and everything, it seems, moves in slow motion.

There’s a warm glow coming from the kitchen and she can hear someone laughing, but it sounds far-away, distant, not at all like it’s happening in the next room.

Her hands are folded in her lap, but her head is turned in Scott’s direction. 

Tessa’s gaze drags from his warm, bright eyes down to his lips and back. 

He brings a hand to her cheek, and she can feel her heart pounding, thinks to herself _oh my god this is it it’s happening_ as he leans in closer, and closer . . .

Scott touches their foreheads together and then he’s pressing his nose to hers and Tessa can’t think, can’t see anything but him. 

Her senses are overwhelmed with him, but she doesn’t want it to be any other way. Not tonight, not now, not ever.

She lets her eyes fall closed and feels like she’s holding her breath. She can hear him shift closer to her, yet she knows that they’re already close enough that she can lean in and kiss him if she wants, but she savors the moment.

 _You only get one first kiss with the person who’s probably the love of your life_ , she thinks, and her lips split into a grin and she laughs, the sound full of breathless, eager excitement, because it’s such a glorious thought, one she can’t believe is finally coming true.

“What are you laughing at?” Scott whispers as he pulls away the slightest bit, his warm breath sending a shiver down her spine and the butterflies in her stomach from earlier return.

Tessa doesn’t answer, just opens her eyes and blinks at him. She winds her arms around his neck, slides her hand upwards through his hair. It’s soft, just as she’s suspected for all of these years.

There’s a palpable electricity between them, and when he leans in again, she swears that she sees fireworks; when his gaze doesn’t leave hers, she knows that she feels a spark.

 _I don’t know how I denied this for so long_ , she thinks as her eyes close again.

Scott inhales softly and _this is it here we go I think my life is about to change in the best_ – 

“Tessa! Scott!” Kaitlyn’s voice floats over the kitchen, and they jump apart just in time for her to poke her head into the room. She doesn’t seem to notice how close they are to each other, how close they are to kissing, as she comes further into the room, two champagne flutes in her hands. She hands one to each of them before she says, “Laura and Carmen are adopting! It became official late last night!”

 _Everyone has wanted Scott and I to get together for so long that of course something would interrupt us when we’re about to kiss_ , Tessa thinks bitterly, yet she plasters on a smile, takes her hand out of Scott’s hair and unravels her other arm from around his neck as she says something about how great that is, how happy she is for her friends.

And she is, but the butterflies have calmed and her heart-rate has returned to normal, which means . . .

The spell is broken. 

Tessa and Scott join their friends in the kitchen, and they don’t see each other long enough to talk for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! It's going to be so amazing when they finally do kiss!
> 
> Come talk to me in the comments or on twitter @hwrites_! Thank you for reading! <3


	7. what's going on with you and me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott finally admit their feelings for each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone is confused about the date at the top of the chapter, I messed up last week's. At the beginning of last chapter, it says that it was the week after Tessa realizes her feelings for Scott, but for some reason, when I was writing it, I thought it was two weeks. Sorry for any confusion!
> 
> Now, onto the chapter!

**april twenty-eighth**

  
  


_Tess, where are you?_

When a glance at her phone’s clock tells her that she’s running ten minutes late, Tessa scrambles out of bed, types out a quick response. _On my way, sorry._

_Do you want me to order for you?_

She pauses to rub the sleep out of her eyes before answering. _Yeah, that’d be great. Just get me whatever you’re having, I’ll see you soon._

It’s the week after the get-together at Kaitlyn and Andrew’s. Tessa hasn’t spoken to Scott all week. He canceled yesterday’s coffee shindig (she doesn’t know what to call it, and she’s absolutely not going to use the word ‘date’), claimed to be coming down with a cold, although she doesn’t know how true that is.

She’s kind of grateful that he did, honestly, because she cannot believe that she let her feelings get in the way of their newly-rekindled friendship.

The minute she left the apartment ( _no, the minute Kaitlyn interrupted our almost-kiss_ ) was the minute she started to regret it, started to wonder if he really, truly feels the same way about her that she does about him. She knows she’s just being ridiculous, yet she’s hardly slept at all this week because she keeps replaying their kiss-that-didn’t-quite-happen.

_Did he really not want to kiss me? Surely, he would have after Kaitlyn interrupted if he’d wanted_ , she thinks on the way to the place where she’s meeting her sister for lunch.

Now that Tessa thinks about it, Kaitlyn had stood there, oblivious, beaming at the two of them as she let the news sink in that two of Tessa’s friends finally get the chance to adopt, something that they’ve been talking about for as long as she’s known them. It did sink in, but not without the tiniest bit of frustration at her friend, who had the worst timing at that moment.

Tessa wasn’t _actually_ mad at her, obviously, because Kaitlyn had no idea that she and Scott were about to kiss, there was no way that she could have known.

So, she supposes that Scott might have wanted to kiss her, but he didn’t have time since Kaitlyn burst into the room without like, a two-minute warning or something.

Jordan is already sitting at a corner table when she gets there, half a glass of orange juice in front of her.

“I’m so sorry,” Tessa apologizes earnestly as she hangs her jacket on the back of the chair before sitting down. “I over-slept, and . . .”

Her sister only raises an eyebrow at her. “It’s okay. What was so urgent that you needed to have, and I quote, ‘quality sister bonding time?’ Not that I don’t love hanging out with you, of course.”

She’d called Jordan earlier in the week and asked her to meet her for breakfast. It was time for her to admit her feelings for Scott to someone, mostly because she was tired of giving herself pep-talks. And because Jordan usually gives good advice, as much as she doesn’t want to admit it.

Now, Tessa only rolls her eyes. “You do love hanging out with me, you don’t need to be sarcastic.”

“That wasn’t sarcasm, Tess. I do like hanging out with you, but what’s going on?”

“You were right, Jordan.”

Another eyebrow raise, this time paired with a slow grin before Jordan decides to give an answer. “I’m right about a lot of things, Tessa. You’re going to have to be a little more specific.”

She sighs, really not wanting to give her sister the satisfaction of being right about the one thing Tessa’s told her time and time again isn’t true, but she knows that it’s necessary. “Remember that time you and I were talking about Scott–”

Somehow, Jordan’s grin widens, and she knows that her sister is going to enjoy this for as long as she can, as she’s probably already figured it out. “We’ve talked about Scott a lot of times, you’re going to have to–”

“Be more specific, yeah. Anyway, remember that time we were talking about Scott, and you told me that you ‘felt’ that we were going to fall in love, told me that everyone thought that we were going to get together?”

“It may be coming to mind, why?” Jordan asks flippantly, and the grin turns into a smile.

“I already told you that you were right, do you really want me to spell it out?” Tessa mumbles.

“You had sex, didn’t you?”

Her jaw drops, although she’s not sure why she wasn’t expecting it. “No! Jordan, do you really think–?”

“That if you had sex with Scott, I would want to hear about it? No. But do I know you’re going to tell me anyway? Yes.”

“I would – No, why would you think I’d _tell_ – No!” she sputters, feeling her cheeks redden.

Jordan smirks and picks up her glass again. “C’mon Tess, you know you’d tell me. Did you kiss, at least?”

Tessa takes a sudden interest in the wooden table in front of her.

“Tess! You kissed Scott and you’re not telling me until right now? This moment has only been, oh, I don’t know, _ten years_ in the making!”

“We almost kissed, but Kaitlyn interrupted us. We were at her and Andrew’s apartment for a get-together with our friends.”

“Damn. You know I love Kaitlyn, but why did she interrupt what is probably going to be the most magical first kiss, with Scott, of your life?”

All she can do is shrug. “I don’t know. Well, she told us that Laura and Carmen have finally been approved to adopt, so I guess that’s exciting.”

Jordan laughs. “You don’t sound too excited.”

“I am! Really. It just sucks that she had to come in at that moment.”

“So, what was it like?”

“Jordan, we didn’t even kiss. How would I know?”

“Okay, fine. Define an almost kiss with Scott Moir, then.”

Tessa takes a moment to think about it, and Jordan doesn’t miss the dreamy expression that appears on her face. “Well, it was . . . Indescribable. Like the movies, I think. Everything moved in slow motion, and it was Scott and I were being pulled together by some sort of magnet. I know, I know, that’s really cheesy, but everything about this almost-kiss was exactly like you’d expect an almost-kiss to be. We were so close, my hand was in his hair, and all I could see was him. All I’d wanted to see in that moment was him, and it felt like everything was finally coming into place. 

“Everything that people have been expecting to happen between us, it was right there. I could picture how it was going to play out, and that was when Kaitlyn came into the room. Then, it was like all of the air had been sucked out of the room, all of the warmth, and everything that had made that moment so special was just . . . gone, just like that. I didn’t see him for the rest of the night, and I haven’t talked to him at all this week. Scott canceled our weekly coffee . . . meeting because he’s sick, so it’s not like I can talk to him if I want to.”

Jordan is silent for what feels like a few minutes. The waitress comes over to take their order, and it’s only after she leaves that Tessa’s sister responds. “You know where he lives, right? Why don’t you just go talk to him?”

“I’m not going _stalk_ Scott. Plus, he’s sick, and I don’t want–”

“To get sick? Tess, no offense, but that’s the lamest excuse I have ever heard. He probably doesn’t even have a cold!”

“What do you mean? He wouldn’t _lie_ to–”

“No, no, that’s not what I mean. Scott doesn’t know how you feel about him, and he doesn’t want to mess up your friendship, the same reason you won’t go to him about this. But I think you should, because he’s not going to reject you. He wouldn’t almost-kiss you if he didn’t want to actually kiss you.”

“He’s had so many chances to kiss me, though. Why did we wait until that one specific moment, and then it got interrupted?”

“It’s not like you knew you wouldn’t kiss that night, silly. Neither of you could have predicted that, just like you didn’t know that you were going to kiss until it happened. If you want things to happen, Tess, sometimes you have to make them happen yourself. Scott doesn’t know you’ll like him, and he won’t know until you tell him. Put yourself out there.”

“I’m scared though. What if I’m reading this all wrong?”

All Jordan does is smile. “Something tells me you’re not, but I’m not going to tell you what to do. If you don’t want to talk with Scott about this, then don’t.”

 

It’s raining heavily as Tessa is driving home after lunch a little while later. She can’t get Jordan’s advice out of her head.

_If you want things to happen, Tess, sometimes you have to make them happen yourself._

It doesn’t take her long to realize that she wants to go see Scott. 

She feels weird just showing up unannounced, but she’s already too close that it wouldn’t make sense if she calls him now only to show up at his apartment ten minutes later.

The rain is still coming down heavily as she parks in his complex’s parking lot– 

Only to see him rounding the corner, coming from the building to his car.

“Scott!” she yells, although Tessa doubts that he hears her over the sound of the pounding rain.

Tessa shouts his name again and practically runs over to him. She can already feel the rain soaking her clothes and her hair, but she doesn’t care.

She reaches Scott just before he gets to his car and taps his shoulder.

He turns around, a confused look on his face. He stands there, frozen, as he takes her in standing in front of him. “Tessa?”

It’s not that he doesn’t look happy to see her, it’s just that confusion as to why she’s here is perfectly clear on his face. And now she’s starting to wish that she’d told him she was coming over. He might be on his way somewhere important.

“Sorry, I . . .” She trails off, not knowing what to say.

Then he smiles, pushes his wet hair away from his face. “It’s funny that you’re here, actually. I was just about to drive over to your house.”

She blinks at him. “Wait, why?”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” he explains, and her heart stomach drops.

_Oh no, he’s going to say that he regretted our almost kiss. Even though we didn’t even kiss._

“But it can wait,” Scott continues, “Let’s go inside and get warmed up.”

She doesn’t say anything, just nods and lets him take her hand, lets him put his hand on the small of her back and lead her into the apartment building and up the stairs, down the hall and to his front door.

The building is warm, definitely warmer than outside had been, but that’s all in the back of her mind as all she can think about is how when Scott drops her hand to unlock the front door, his other hand stays on her back.

Tessa doesn’t know why she suddenly can’t talk. She just can’t find what she wants to say to Scott.

Her plan had been: get here and kiss him. When she saw him outside, that had changed to: get here and kiss him in the rain.

Everything that comes after that is fuzzy, and now she thinks she definitely needed a more solid idea of what came after the kiss, considering that kiss hasn’t happened, and now she has zero explanation for why she’s suddenly at a loss for words.

It played out perfectly in her head, of course. After she’d tapped him on the shoulder, she knew the second that he turned around, they would kiss. Tessa hadn’t known who would lean in first, but what she had known was that it would be how it was at Kaitlyn and Andrew’s party, all electricity and fireworks.

Instead, Scott had looked at her, mostly happy and slightly confused, and all thoughts of kissing him in that moment had disappeared.

“Okay, T,” Scott says, and once he’s ushered her inside, he takes off his shoes and turns to face her, “Do you want to drink hot chocolate and watch a movie?”

She follows suit, and they stand there, looking at each other, as silence stretches around them again.

“What is it that you need to tell me?” she asks, finally finding her voice again after a few minutes.

“Why did you come here?” he asks gently, closing the door behind them and not meeting her eyes once he’s facing her again.

Tessa laughs, reaching out and brushing his hair out of his face. “Scott, you can’t answer my question with a question.”

He smiles, catching her hand in his as she’s bringing it back to her side, and doesn’t answer.

She sighs, rolling her eyes playfully. “Okay, fine, I’ll say why I’m here.”

Just in case he decides to say what he wants to tell her (she _really_ wants to know), she waits a few seconds, taking a deep breath to tell him when he doesn’t say anything, just nods encouragingly.

“Remember last Saturday, when we were at Kaitlyn and Andrew’s? We were about to, um, kiss when Kaitlyn suddenly came into the room to announce that Carmen and Laura are adopting?”

Tessa doesn’t look at him, looks past him at a random spot on the wall. She can’t bring herself to see what his expression is, not now.

“Yeah,” Scott answers slowly, as if he doesn’t know where this is going.

She still doesn’t, can’t, look at him as she continues. At this point, she knows she’s rambling, knows that she doesn’t want to admit why she’s here because she’s scared that he’ll reject her and then their friendship will be ruined. “Well, um, I kind of came here to . . . I was with Jordan before this, and I was telling her how upset I was that we didn’t, you know, kiss, and she told me to just come over here and like, I don’t know, tell you that I want to kiss you.”

“What’d you decide? Do you?” he asks, and, it might just be her imagination, but she can’t help but think that his voice sounds lower, quieter, than normal.

“Do I what, Scott?” she replies, even though she knows what he means, and she looks over at him.

Scott’s eyes are bright, warm, and Tessa finds herself getting lost in them.

“Do you want to kiss me, Tessa?” he answers, his voice low and quiet.

Her breath hitches in her throat, and everything, just as it had at Kaitlyn and Andrew’s, moves in slow motion. 

There’s no music and there isn’t the sound of people talking, but Tessa slides her arms around Scott’s neck, and leans close to him. Her eyes don’t leave his, not as she feels his strong arms wrap around her waist, not as she realizes that what she’s hearing is the sound of her heart pounding.

Their foreheads touch and that spark, the fireworks, from before are back and stronger than ever. She knows that she’s cold, that her clothes are still wet from the rain, but she doesn’t care about any of that. All she cares about in this moment is Scott, and all she wants to do in this moment is kiss him.

It’s at that moment that Tessa realizes that she never answered his question.

“Yes,” she tells him, and her eyes flutter closed.

_Is he really going to kiss me? Is this finally happening oh my God I’ve only been waiting for this to happen for such a long time –_

Scott laughs softly, interrupting her thoughts, and leans down, touches his lips to hers.

And instantly, all of her thoughts quiet. Every time she’s thought about kissing him, it’s always this raw, passionate kiss, full of fire and bursting with electricity. 

In her head, they would kiss after they’ve admitted their feelings for each other, and it would be fervent, two friends without feelings to hide who are making up for lost time.

In reality, it’s so much better than that. It’s not fiery or full of passion, like she expected, but, if she’s honest, she didn’t really want that anyway. Scott kisses her sweetly, slowly, like they have all of the time in the world, which they do.

When he pulls away, Tessa instantly leans toward him again, because now that she’s kissed him once she doesn’t think she ever wants to stop.

“Tessa,” he mumbles, indulging in more kisses for a few more seconds before pulling away again.

“I just want to kiss you,” she tells him simply, opening her eyes to find him already looking at her, his eyes bright and cheeks flushed.

“And I want to kiss you,” he replies, tucking her hair behind her ear, “but I have to tell you something first.”

“Okay.”

“Here, come sit down.”

He seems nervous, but considering they just shared the sweetest, softest kiss, she doesn’t know why.

So, they sit side-by-side on the couch, although they’re facing each other.

“What do you need to tell me?” she questions, covering his hand with hers.

“I’m in love with you.”

He says it so softly that Tessa isn’t quite sure if she hears him correctly. 

_What else would he be saying?_ she asks herself, but she can’t seem to think of an answer.

“I have been for a long time,” he continues, “but I wasn’t sure how to tell you. I wasn’t sure if you wanted . . . if you loved me back.”

“I do. I really do, Scott. I loved you when I was fifteen and I love you now. Not that those things have to have anything in common, because it would be kind of weird if I’ve been in love with you for ten years and we haven’t even been in contact for all of those years, much less friends. I couldn’t tell you; I didn’t want to ruin our already-fragile friendship, but at the same time all I wanted was for you to know.”

“I feel like I should tell you that I wasn’t sick yesterday; I’ve just been thinking of how we almost kissed at Kaitlyn and Andrew’s, and I didn’t know how you felt about that. We hadn’t gotten the chance to talk about it, and when it came to be the middle of last week and you still hadn’t said anything, I figured you just weren’t into me.”

“Honestly, I was just upset that Kaitlyn interrupted us. And I don’t want you to think that I’m only in love because everyone says that I should be; I’ve been feeling this way toward you way before everyone even brought that up. I was kind of glad when you canceled yesterday, because I felt like I couldn’t keep my feelings from you any longer." She pauses, looks at him before she says, "Hey, Scott?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m so into you.”

She leans over and kisses Scott again, sweetly, yet she isn’t surprised when she can feel electricity between them. He wraps his arms around her and deepens the kiss as she crawls into his lap, itching to be closer to him.

When they break apart again, they’re still close enough that she can, hypothetically, lean over and kiss him again if she wants. But she doesn’t, and the two of them just enjoy being close to each other, wrapped in each other’s arms, comfortable and safe and happy and Tessa knows that she still can’t believe this is happening.

“Wait, you said earlier that you were going to come over. Were you going to, like, profess your love for me or something?” she teases.

Scott laughs and kisses her cheek. “No. Well, I don't know. I hadn't thought that far. I was just going to run up to you and kiss you. Preferably outside, because I’m such a romantic that I wanted our first kiss to be in the rain.”

“I first saw you earlier, and that was my plan; I wanted to kiss you in the rain,” Tessa admits, “I wasn’t even going to say anything, just kiss you, because I wanted it to be so romantic and a little bit cheesy, but then I saw the look of confusion on your face and couldn’t bring myself to just . . . kiss you without any explanation.”

“It’s still raining now, you know,” Scott replies with a grin, and Tessa can’t help but laugh.

“You’re seriously suggesting that we go outside just to kiss in the rain?”

He shrugs, an innocent look on his face. “All I’m saying is that we were talking about kissing in the rain, and it just so happens to be raining outside right now.”

“You want to go outside just so you can kiss me, I can tell. Just so you know, I’m not opposed to it, but . . .”

“Do you want me to spell it out for you?” he asks, his eyebrows raised.

She presses another kiss to his lips and whispers _yes_ against his mouth.

“Okay, fine,” Scott says with a long, exaggerated sigh, yet she knows that he's just kidding. “I want to go outside solely to kiss you in the rain, Tessa.”

Tessa gets up off the couch and walks around it to her shoes. She puts them on while Scott just stares at her.

“Come on, Scott, it might not be raining forever.”

He grins at her, practically leaps over the couch and lands next to her. Quickly, he puts on his shoes, makes sure that he has the key to get back inside, and then he’s taking her hand.

Tessa makes to shut the door behind them, because as badly as she wants to kiss Scott, she also doesn’t want someone to go wandering through his apartment while they’re outside.

“Do you think everyone will laugh at us when we tell them this story?” she questions, as they all but run down the stairs.

“Probably, but who cares? It’s romantic, and honestly? It’s such an _us_ thing, to go outside just to kiss in the rain.”

“You’re definitely not wrong about that, Scott,” she replies as he pulls the door open and steps outside.

It’s still raining thickly; their clothes and hair are wet within seconds, and, when Tessa looks up at Scott, she can see rain droplets on her eyelashes, but she doesn’t even care.

He winds his arms around her, and she stands on her tiptoes, kisses him. They kiss, time slowing all around them, and it’s full of warmth, the perfect contrast to the cold rain.

Of course, at that moment, a car drives by, splashing them with water and a little bit of mud.

“That’s probably our cue to go inside,” Scott mutters, tangling his hands in her hair.

“Yeah.”

Neither of them breaks the kiss, at least not until Tessa is so cold from the rain (plus, she’s not wearing a coat; she hadn’t even thought to bring one with her) that she’s shivering.

“Okay, I don’t want you to get sick, Tess. Come on, let’s go inside.”

Somewhat reluctantly, they head back upstairs again.

“So, I was thinking,” Scott starts, another grin on his face, and Tessa raises her eyebrows.

“What about?”

“Well, even though we’ve admitted our feelings for each other, we should still go on a date. How does Saturday at seven sound?”

“Absolutely perfect.”

It’s not until they’re back in Scott’s apartment, sitting on the couch, that it occurs to Tessa.

“Hey, Scott?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m guessing we’re trading in our regular Saturday coffee dates for a Saturday night date?”

“Yeah, except this one will have 100% more romance.”

She laughs and leans into his side. “I honestly wasn’t even sure what to call those coffee dates, because they weren’t really _dates_ ; we were just friends, but friends with feelings.”

“I don’t know, I wanted them to be a date, but I didn’t know how to bring it up.”

“Is that why you paid for my breakfast last week? Was it, like, a pseudo-date?”

“Maybe,” he answers innocently, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

“Well, it was the best, and only, pseudo-date ever.”

“Just to be clear, next Saturday is a real date.”

“I figured,” she tells Scott, “but thank you for clarifying.”

“Of course, Tess, any time.”

Tessa smiles to herself, glad that her and Scott can still joke around with each other, still be each other’s best friends, while also being in love with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really, really hope I did their first kiss right, and that it's as magical and wonderful as you were all hoping for. I love it a lot, and when they go outside to kiss in the rain is so cute.
> 
> You can let me know what you think in the comments, if you want to! :)


	8. a new kind of different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott go on their first date.

**may fifth**

  
  


Tessa’s phone is buzzing on her nightstand as she paces in front of her closet the night of her and Scott’s date.

It’s about five-thirty, she’d gotten home from work about an hour ago, and all she’s done is freak out about tonight.

She rushes over to her phone, and panics slightly when she sees Scott’s contact on her screen.

_I’ve never been more nervous for a date in my life_ , she thinks as she grabs the phone and brings it to her ear, and _plus, it’s just Scott. I’ve known him literally since I was seven. I shouldn’t be this nervous_.

_You’re only nervous because this means a lot to you_. Scott _means a lot to you_ , she reasons with herself.

“Hello?” she greets, pushing all thoughts of being nervous about tonight out of her head.

“T! Hey, so is it okay if I pick you up at eight?”

"Yeah. What are we going to do?"

Scott clicks his tongue, and she can hear the smile in his voice when he speaks next. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

"So it's a surprise?"

"Yes, T. It's a surprise."

Tessa laughs. “Okay, well, see you tonight.”

“Oh, you bet, Tess!”

Scott hangs up then, and that’s when she spots it: the black pantsuit that she wore a few weeks ago to Kaitlyn and Andrew’s. That was the night that she and Scott almost kissed, which also happens to be the night that she started to think that they could really be something. It’s a little cold outside, but not cold enough that she needs a jacket or a coat, so she pairs it with a black-and-white polka-dot sweater.

She curls her hair and does her makeup, and before she knows it, the clock hits seven forty-five, and she’s heading downstairs to the living room to wait for Scott.

Sure enough, there’s a series of four knocks on the door at eight on the dot.

When Tessa opens the door, she expects, of course, that it’s going be Scott, but what she doesn’t expect is Scott to be holding the largest bouquet of flowers she’s ever seen, blocking her view of his face. 

It’s full of roses of all sorts of colors, and her jaw practically drops at the sight.

“Scott,” she breathes out, hugging him as he hands her the flowers, “They’re really, really beautiful. You didn’t have–”

“To get them for you? I know, but I wanted to. Only the loveliest flowers for my love.”

She might cry right now, she loves him so much. Tessa knows that it’s too soon to say that, but she definitely kisses him hard, swipes off the bit of lipstick that gets on his mouth.

“Come on in, I’m going to put these in water.”

He leans in her kitchen doorway, watches adoringly as she takes a minute to arrange the flowers so that they’re all prominently featured in the vase, and then Scott wraps her in his arms when she stands in front of him again.

“So,” Tessa starts, once they’ve both pulled away and are walking to Scott’s car, “can I at least know what we’re doing first?”

He glances at her for a minute before he answers. “We’re going to a midnight showing of _Pride and Prejudice_ , because I know that’s your favorite movie. Yes, before you ask, it’s the Keira Knightley version.”

“Wait, are you sure? I remember you saying once, in high school, that you would never see that movie because it was ‘too full of romance’ for your liking, or something.”

“Tess, teenage Scott was an idiot. Besides, I still haven’t seen it, and I think it’s time. Who better to watch it with than you, T?”

“I practically quote that whole movie, Scott. I can’t _believe_ you’ve never seen it!”

He opens the passenger door for her as he scratches the back of his neck, embarrassed. “Well, after our friendship ended, the thought of seeing it made me kind of sad because I would always think of you.”

“Oh, Scott,” she whispers, and Tessa cups his cheek and kisses him again.

“It’s okay, we’re here now, and that’s all that matters.” His lips brush hers when he talks. “That’s in the past, we’re together, we don’t have to think about that anymore.”

“You’re right, but it’s still sad to think about the fact that we might have been dating for a long time, if things had gone differently.”

“Honestly, I’m glad things worked out the way that they did. Well, it would’ve been nice to be in each other’s lives these past ten years, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about how badly I’ve wanted to kiss you since that first day we met for coffee. But, other than that . . . Tessa, think of us being together now as a new kind of different. It’s going to be better, and this whole week has felt like a dream because I’ve been planning my first date with the one person I’ve been in love with for a long time.”

“It’s a date ten years in the making for me, Scott. If only high school Tessa could see herself now.”

Even though it’s dark outside, Tessa can still see the brightness of her best friend’s eyes, the way that they’re the warmest, meltiest shade of brown, like chocolate chips in a freshly-baked cookie. 

She still feels like she’s in high school when he looks at her that way, melted eyes and lopsided, goofy smile. Her heart quickens and there are always, _always_ butterflies flying around in her stomach. 

But the good kind of butterflies, not the nervous kind.

Scott always looks like he could kiss her at every possible minute, and, now that she knows what it’s like to kiss him, she could kiss him every minute for the rest of her days and she doesn’t think, no, she _knows_ , that she’d never get tired of it.

Tessa leans up to kiss him, snapping out of her thoughts, before climbing into the car. Scott stands there for a moment before he shuts the door behind her, seemingly lost in thought himself.

The first thing he does when he gets in the car is put on his seat belt, and the second thing he does is take Tessa’s hand as he backs out of her driveway.

“Are you okay to drive with one hand?” she asks him, and he nods without taking his eyes off of the road.

He’s always been a careful driver, so she’s a little surprised by his answer.

“Yeah, as long as I have one hand on the steering wheel,” he smiles now, still doesn’t look away from the road in front of him, and her heart flutters.

(Not that her heart hasn’t been fluttering this whole time, but that’s kind of beside the point.)

“Were you nervous about tonight?” she asks, squeezing his hand.

Scott’s quiet before he gives an answer. “Yes and no. Yes, because, like, I want tonight to be perfect and something that we’re going to remember for a long, long time. No, because I know that I want to be with you and nothing’s going to change that, no matter if tonight goes perfectly or not.”

“I feel the same way,” she admits, “I feel like a lot of people don’t try to make first dates memorable anymore; it’s just the usual staple of dinner and a movie, which has honestly kind of bored me a little.”

“Something tells me we won’t ever get to be the ‘dinner and a movie’ type, T. We’ve done that already as friends, it’s time for something new, things that we’ve never done before.”

“Right. We’ve been best friends for years, so we already know a lot about each other, already have been on probably hundreds of friend-dates, we just weren’t . . . whatever we are now.”

Tessa bites her lip, nervous, because she doesn’t know if they’re boyfriend and girlfriend or what. Not that she’s necessarily waiting for Scott to, like, formally ask her or anything, but they haven’t yet talked about what they are.

Normally, Tessa will wait to see how the first couple dates go with a person before she even thinks about the topic of what they could be, but, with Scott, that’s different, as they’ve known each other for so long. They didn’t meet through a dating app or a mutual friend, like her and some of the previous people she’s gone out with, so she’s always gone into those dates not knowing everything about the person, as was to be expected.

Not that she knows everything about Scott, especially not things that have happened in the last ten years, but he’s the person that she’s going on a date with that she knows the most about.

“Yeah, should we talk about what we are? Obviously, I want to be more than friends with you, Tessa. Would it be weird if I asked you to be my girlfriend on our way to the first date?”

“I want that with you, too, Scott; I want to do everything with you from now on. I don’t think it’s weird, but you could always wait, if you wanted to. As long as we’re on the same page about only seeing each other and not other people in addition to each other, then that’s a step in the right direction, I think. We have the rest of our lives to figure this out, we don’t have to jump into, like, getting engaged right now. But, for the record, if you were to ask me to be your girlfriend, I want you to know that my answer would most certainly be yes.”

“Damn, there goes number 18 on tonight’s list: _make sure to propose to Tessa_ ,” Scott teases, and she rolls her eyes at him but laughs, nonetheless.

“In all seriousness,” he continues, as he turns onto the highway, “I can’t imagine being with anyone but you, Tessa. I know that sounds cheesy and maybe it’s a little soon, but it’s so true. I wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true. There are several reasons that my previous relationships haven’t worked out, but the main one is that they weren’t right. Being with you, starting a new chapter in our lives as a couple instead of just friends, that feels right.”

“Scott, I know you’re driving, but if you weren’t, I would definitely be kissing you right now. Let’s just see what happens, okay?”

He only grins at her, and nods.

 

They’re stuck in traffic an hour later, and they still have about an hour left of the drive.

“If we don’t make it to the movie, it’s okay. I just can’t believe we’re finally, finally on a date, after all this time,” Tessa informs Scott, and she hopes that maybe, if she talks about not making it to the movie, that will somehow make the cars in front of them move.

It doesn’t work, at least not now.

Scott looks over at her. “I know, and there’s still the element of surprise since you don’t know what’s coming next, but . . . I’ve been really looking forward to seeing this movie.”

She runs her hand through his hair and smiles at him. “Yeah. I could just tell you the whole thing, if you want. If we don’t make it, that is.”

“I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to see it. Or, well, be on my way to see it. But yes, I definitely want you to narrate it for me, just because that would be so adorable.”

 

Thankfully, they end up making it to the movie.

About ten minutes before it starts, but they make it, nonetheless.

“So, did it live up to your expectations?” Tessa questions with a grin, as they’re leaving the theater two hours later, walking back to the car.

“I don’t know that I really had any expectations, to be honest, just because I didn’t know what to expect. We’d had to read the book in high school, but I didn’t remember any of it, so I didn’t know how the book would compare to the movie. If I did have expectations, though, they would definitely be lived up to.”

“What’s up next for tonight?” she asks, and he laughs, takes her hand in his.

“There’s this cute little 24-hour diner near here, I was thinking–”

“Yes, absolutely.”

Scott laughs again. “I see that your love of breakfast hasn’t changed, no?”

Whenever they would go out to eat in high school, whether it be with friends or just the two of them, Tessa would always either order a Caesar salad (always with chicken and extra dressing on the side), or a giant stack of pancakes with two sides (usually eggs and bacon, sometimes toast instead of eggs) to go along with it. There were never any in-between options.

“My love for breakfast foods is eternal, Scott. Nothing can come in the way of me and a good stack of pancakes.”

“Of course, Tessa. Now, it’s going to take about ten minutes to get there, so hopefully your pancake craving can hold off for a little while.”

“It definitely can, as long as I’m with you,” she smiles, and then leans up on her tiptoes to kiss him sweetly.

At that moment, her stomach grumbles, and they both laugh, breaking away from each other to get into the car.

Precisely ten minutes later, just as Scott had said, the two of them get to the diner, where there are a few cars parked. There’s a neon pink sign that reads _Ann’s Diner_ , and, from what Tessa can see as she and Scott walk around to the front, there are a few people occupying the booths inside.

They’re seated pretty quickly, in red booths with all sorts of records hanging on the wall.

“Scott,” Tessa says, after she’s been studying the wall for a few minutes, as Scott has been browsing the menu, and he looks up to see her pointing at a particular record on the wall.

The record in question is, of course, Hall & Oates’ _You Make My Dreams_ , which has been one of Tessa’s favorite (if not only favorite) song for as long as he can remember.

“That’s a sign that we're meant to be here, probably,” he tells her with a grin, picking up his menu again.

“Not that we need any signs, but, if we did, that would definitely be one,” she answers, following suit as she picks up her own menu.

A waitress comes by ten minutes later to take their order; both of them order pancakes and milkshakes, because it’s late at night and they’re hungry, plus, as Scott had said before they ordered, “it's late at night, so why not get something sweet and filling?"

She hadn’t been able to argue with that, which is how they find themselves with two huge stacks of pancakes and a pile of bacon on a plate between them twenty minutes later.

After they eat and, Tessa goes to use the restroom, so Scott pays the bill, and then he just so happens to spot a dusty jukebox in the corner.

“Does this work?” he asks the waitress behind the front counter, and all she does is shrug, not looking up from where she’s playing on her phone.

Still, he inserts the necessary change and looks for the song that he’s hoping to find.

Tessa spots Scott standing at the jukebox and makes her way over to him, wraps her arm around his waist as she leans against his side. “Find anything you like?”

“Guess what song they have?” he asks instead of replying.

“ _You Make My Dreams_?” she guesses, and he turns to her with a grin.

Scott leans down to whisper _I think this is going to be our song_ in her ear, and the warmth of his breath on her hair sends a shiver down her spine.

“Yeah, I think it is.”

The jukebox doesn’t, in fact, work, so they walk back their table somewhat dejectedly.

“Was that the next surprise on the list?” Tessa asks, as they put on their coats and get ready to leave.

“No, but it would’ve been cute if we could have danced to it, you know?”

She nods, and then they’re on their way out of the diner, walking to the car, as she says, “Yeah, but we can dance to that song any time tonight. We could even dance to it right now, if you want. I have it on my phone.”

His eyes light up at that; she could tell he was a little bit sad that the jukebox didn’t work, but this is at least a nice alternative, Tessa thinks.

So, she cues up the song on her phone and sets it on the roof of the car.

Scott grins at her, and, without saying anything, they waltz around the dark parking lot.  
To end the song, he spins her around and then kisses her, so she’s not only dizzy and breathless from being spun but dizzy and breathless from the kiss, as well.

Their kiss lasts longer than the end of the song, so the next song in her music library starts to play.

“We should probably get going, Tessa. It’s starting to get cold, especially since it’s, what, like one-thirty in the morning?”

Reluctantly, she pulls away, although they stay in each other’s arms for a few more minutes.

There’s been something particularly magical about tonight, although she can’t put her finger on what it is. Maybe it’s the fact that she’s with Scott on a date for the first time, something that she never thought she’d be doing, because she never thought that he’d come back into her life and she would realize that the feelings she had for him never really left, no matter how badly she may have tried to deny them.

Whatever it is, she’s glad that she’s here with Scott, driving through a star-filled sky in the early morning of their first date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of update last weekend! I hope that all of you like this chapter! :)


	9. who i am with you is who i want to be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott learn more about each other.

**may twelfth**

  
  


Tessa hasn’t told anyone about her date with Scott. 

She keeps telling herself it’s because that their relationship is still new and she wants it to just be between them, but deep down, she knows the real reason that she hasn’t told anyone.

She’s been trying to hold off telling Jordan and their families for as long as possible, because Tessa absolutely is _not_ looking forward to hearing the dreaded, _I told you so_.

Also, once their families know, all they’re going to want to do is ask questions. 

Questions that are immensely private.

They’ll mean well, of course. 

She’s just not sure she’s ready for their families to know, but they’ll figure it out sooner or later.

Tessa’s on her way to work, where, after her lunch break, she’s meeting with Laura and Carmen to interview them about the adoption process. 

The fashion blog that she works for is endeavoring to branch out into a lifestyle blog, hence the adoption process interview.

If she’s honest, she’s actually really excited about it. She’s talked to Laura and Carmen a few times about it, but never as in-depth as she’s going to in the interview. 

Plus, it’ll be nice to get to see her friends at work, something that rarely ever happens.

Tessa gets to her office much earlier than necessary; there’s usually some sort of traffic but for a Friday morning in May, there surprisingly wasn’t much.

The office that Tessa inhabits is small but functional; there’s a desk to the right of the room, scattered with papers and pens. A grey couch is pushed to the wall across from it, with a teal throw pillow on the couch, and the only lights in the room come from her brass desk lamp and the floor-to-ceiling window where the wall between the desk and the couch would be.

Above the couch there’s a pink and white print that says, _You can do this!_ in all lowercase cursive that her mother bought for her when she first got the job. Next to that is a cartoon picture of a flower, which Kaitlyn had given her their second year of college.

She makes sure that she has the necessities: tea, coffee, clear the couch for Laura and Carmen to sit on so that isn’t piled high with towers of magazines balancing precariously on top of each other. She also makes a point to refill the candy dish that she’s set out on the coffee table in front of the couch, although it had never really been used.

Not used to having visitors in her office, Tessa paces around for a solid 45 minutes before her friends are set to arrive. She doesn’t really know what to ask them, but she knows that she has to ask them something, and it can’t be about Scott, no matter how badly she may want to tell them.

That’s not why they’re going to be here, and she’s sure that her boss wouldn’t like that at all.

Her phone buzzes, and as soon as she looks at it, all thoughts of the upcoming interview fly out of her head.

It’s a notification from Tinder.

She freezes, and then taps out a frantic text to Scott. _Hey_ , she starts, _you deleted Tinder, right_?

Even though yes, they went on a date and yes, they both said that they had feelings for each other, they forgot to have this somewhat-major conversation: Do they delete the dating apps?

Scott’s reply comes just as she’s about to confirm that she wants to delete the app. _Oh, I actually totally forgot that it was still on my phone. Have you? If you want, we can delete it later when we’re together? It can be a momentous moment_.

_I haven’t, and yeah, that sounds great_ , Tessa responds, setting her phone down after the message sends.

She writes a few articles, edits, formats, and schedules them to go up at midnight tonight. 

Lunch comes sooner than she expects, and before she knows it, there’s a text from Laura, saying that she and Carmen are on their way.

“Hey, Tessa? Laura and I are here!” Carmen’s voice floats through the door, and she rushes over to open it.

“It’s so good to see you!” Tessa chirps, throwing her arms around Carmen and then Laura as she leads them into her office.

“Aw, it’s so cozy in here,” Laura smiles fondly, her eyes roaming around the room. “How long have you had an office?”

She doesn’t get to see Laura and Carmen very much, considering all three of them are so busy with work. Carmen is a photographer and Laura is an event planner who travels every now and again to Toronto. The two of them haven’t seen Tessa’s office yet, the same as many of her friends. It gets really cramped if she’s interviewing just one person, she can’t imagine bringing four or five of her friends here at one time.

Tessa definitely isn’t complaining about the size of her office; she loves it, she just doesn’t want to have a lot of people in it at one time.

“Ever since I started working here. It’s nice for when I have to interview people, and it’s nice that I get to have my own space to create.”

Carmen nods along as she’s talking. “I totally understand that. I didn’t have an office for a long, long time. It’s such a luxury. Before I had an office, it was easy to bring work home, but now it’s so nice to have somewhere to leave all the stress so that home can just be for Laura and I, not for Laura, myself, and my work.”

“Yeah,” Laura chimes in, holding onto Carmen’s hand, “It’s really good to have that work-life balance, especially when your job is as creative as ours.”

“I agree one-hundred percent. Now, what do you say we get started?”

The three of them talk for a while about the adoption process, before Carmen and Laura glance at each other.

“So,” Carmen starts, not breaking eye contact with her fiancée for a moment before her eyes shift over to meet Tessa’s, “Laura and I noticed that you and Scott have gotten awfully close, especially when we were all hanging out at Kaitlyn and Andrew’s.”

“Yeah, we knew what happened in high school, what with Scott going away to college and not telling you. We just wanted to make sure you’re okay, T.”

Tessa sighs and sets her notebook down on the coffee table in front of her. “Yeah, I’m okay. We’re okay. It’s been ten years, a lot has happened.”

_Ten years which I don’t even know what he was doing. I should probably ask him_.

“We’re actually um . . . dating now.”

It feels weird to finally say those words out loud, and she almost wants to take them back so that her and Scott can continue to live in their little bubble. But they can’t, because this is real life, and the longer they wait to tell people, the harder it’s going to be.

Carmen and Laura share a surprised glance.

“What . . . How?” Carmen asks.

“Well,” Tessa realizes, at that exact moment, that she hasn’t told any of her friends, only Jordan, and she doesn’t even know that Tessa and Scott are officially dating. “We re-met on Tinder a few months ago because I was looking for a date to Kaitlyn’s wedding. I didn’t realize it was him until we matched, and then it turns out that I still had his number, so I called him.”

She continues on with the story: going through the coffee dates, Charlie and Nicole’s wedding, the almost-kiss at Kaitlyn and Andrews.

“Oh, I’m sure Kait would feel so bad if she knew that she interrupted your guys’ first kiss,” Laura comments.

“Maybe. I’m kind of afraid to tell her, though. I don’t really want her to know that I was looking for a date for her wedding on Tinder.”

“Why not? That’s how she and Andrew met,” Carmen explains.

“I thought they met when she was studying abroad in Scotland? She told me that she got lost on a hike and he helped her find her way.”

Even though Tessa had known Andrew in high school as he was friends with Scott, he and Scott graduated the year before Kaitlyn moved there. They hadn’t crossed paths until they were randomly both on a semester abroad in Scotland. It had been the spring semester of Kaitlyn’s freshman year, and the spring semester of Andrew’s junior year.

“They did go on a hike,” Laura reveals, “on a date. They really met on Tinder.”

“Why didn’t Kaitlyn just tell me that?” Tessa asks. She’s not mad about it, just a little confused. “Did she think I’d be upset?”

Considering she used Tinder to find a date for this wedding (which turned into finding Scott), she has no problem with it.

“I honestly don’t know,” Carmen replies with a shrug, “You can ask her though, I’m sure she’d tell you.”

She makes a mental note to ask Kaitlyn about that when she sees her next, and then she tells her friends about her and Scott’s first date.

“Are you guys like . . .” Laura pauses dramatically and glances around the room, even though it’s just the three of them, “ _dating now_?”

She whispers that last part, which makes Tessa laugh. There’s no reason for Laura to whisper, but it’s a little funny, nonetheless.

“Yeah, we are. I just realized right before you guys got here that I forgot to delete Tinder from my phone.”

“Tess, you should probably do that,” Carmen advises.

“Scott and I are hanging out tonight and we’re going to delete it together. Some kind of momentous thing that seems cute.”

“So, what was he doing for ten years?” Laura asks. “What’s his job now?”

“Uh . . . I don’t actually even . . . know?” That last word comes out like a question, even though it isn’t.

“Oh,” is all Laura responds with, her eyebrows raised.

“Yeah . . . It’s something we need to talk about, I know.”

“Wait, let me get this straight. You jumped into this relationship without knowing what Scott’s been up to for the past decade or what his _job_ is?” Carmen’s voice rises.

“Car, calm down. Tessa’s an adult, she–” Laura tries to console, but Carmen plows along.

“How can you be in love with someone when you don’t know everything about them?”

“I _do_ know everything about–”

“As much as I don’t think Carmen needs to be _yelling_ ,” Laura chastises with a glance in her fiancée’s direction. “I do think that she has a point. Have you told Scott that you love him?”

Tessa doesn’t answer, instead looks at the bright and cheery prints on the wall behind Laura and Carmen.

She never really thought about how she doesn’t know what Scott was like in the decade that they didn’t talk, and she’s just now seeing how that could be a problem. She wonders now if she even knows the real Scott.

“It’s okay, Tessa,” Carmen says soothingly, reaching out and putting her hand in Tessa's.

She stands and paces in front of them. “No, you guys are right. I jumped into this too soon. Of course the _one_ time I don’t overthink something is the one time that I should be overthinking it.”

“That’s not what we’re saying at all, T,” Laura explains gently. “We’re just worried, that’s all. I don’t think Scott is tricking you, but you definitely learn more about him. Does he travel a lot for work?”

“I don’t . . . I don’t know!” she yells, frustrated with herself for not being more careful.

She suddenly feels like she doesn’t know anything about her boyfriend, and she sinks down in her office chair, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Oh, Tess, don’t cry,” Carmen consoles. “I’m sorry that I yelled at you. I didn’t mean to, but like Laura said, we’re just a little worried about you.”

“Yeah. We’re not mad,” Carmen’s fiancée adds.

Tessa sniffles and then takes a slow deep breath, exhaling loudly to clear her head. “Okay. Thank you, guys. I think what I’m going to do is tell Scott that I . . .”

“Are you going to, like, _break up_ with him?” Laura asks, looking more than a little horrified.

“We’re not saying that at all, oh goodness!” Carmen says. “Just . . . maybe, when you hang out tonight, ask him like . . . how he grew as a person? I don’t know, that sounds stupid.”

“No, don’t worry, I’m not going to break up with him. I do think that I should get to know him better, so maybe I’ll ask him.”

Her friends nod at her. “Yes,” they say in unison.

Tessa, Laura, and Carmen all leave at the same time a while later, with Tessa’s work day over. They make plans to meet up for dinner the next week.

As she says goodbye to Laura and Carmen, she thinks about how she’s going to see Scott.

On the drive over to his apartment, all she can think about is over nervous she is.

She knocks on his front door, heart pounding.

“Hey!” Scott greets, leaning over to kiss her cheek as he opens the door wider.

“Hi, how are you?” she asks, taking off her shoes and coat, following him into the kitchen.

“Good, I’m making us dinner.”

Tessa stops in the doorway to the kitchen, watches as Scott adds the spaghetti noodles to the boiling water. “Looks good.”

“Are you okay, T?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just . . .” she trails off, and he turns around to look at her, concerned clear on his face.

“I think we should talk.”

“Okay . . .” he says slowly, and her heart aches for him. It’s not even that she’s breaking up with him, she just doesn’t know the best way to go about this.

Somehow, she thinks ‘Hey, how’ve you been these past ten years? I just realized that I don’t even know what you do for a living’ would come off a little strong.

“What’s going on, T?” Scott asks, and she looks away from him.

_Quit being so dramatic, Tessa_.

“I just feel like I don’t even know you. Like we don’t even know each other.”

She doesn’t give him a chance to respond before she paces around the kitchen. Scott just watches her, no doubt more confused than ever.

“What are you talking about? We’ve been back in each other’s lives for . . . for months, Tessa. Where’s this coming from?”

“Well, I interviewed Carmen and Laura about their adoption process for work and we just got to talking . . . Laura asked me what you do for a living and I realized that . . . I don’t even know! We jumped into this too soon, Scott. How can I be in love with you when I don’t know what you do for a living? Or what you’ve been doing for the ten years that we didn’t talk?”

Tessa stops pacing around the kitchen then, sees Scott looking dumbfounded at her from where he stands in front of the stove.

“I’m sorry,” she amends.

He shakes his head. “Don’t apologize, Tessa, it’s okay. I didn’t know you felt like this, that’s all. Truth be told, I didn’t realize we never talked about it. After that first coffee date, I was just so happy that you were in my life again that I didn’t realize how little we know about each other now versus what we knew in high school. I knew that your favorite movie then was _Pride and Prejudice_ , but is that even true?”

She studies him for a moment before slowly shaking her head. “It’s _a_ favorite, yes, but I have a lot of favorites. I hadn’t seen it a long time before you and I went.”

Scott is quiet, before he says, “How about we spend tonight just getting to know each other? The current Tessa and Scott, not the high school versions.”

Tessa smiles at him. “I think that sounds great. My favorite movie, besides _Pride and Prejudice_ , is _La La Land_. It’s such a beautiful and artistic movie, although I’m not sure how you would feel about it.”

“I’ve definitely heard things about it but I’ve never seen it. I don’t think I have a favorite movie right now, although _Pride and Prejudice_ was pretty good. I’m currently teaching hockey, and I’m thinking about opening up my own rink someday.”

“That sounds awesome. I work for a fashion blog, in a little office where I dream about having my own clothing line or something in the future.”

“Wow,” is all he says, amazement in his eyes as the spaghetti is ready.

“Yeah.”

There are a few seconds where they don’t talk, but it isn’t awkward or anything.

Even though they hardly know anything about each other right now, they’re still Scott and Tessa.

“What’s your favorite color?” Tessa asks suddenly.

“Hm . . . probably green, maybe. Like, a forest green though.”

She nods. “That’s a nice color. Mine’s probably a blush pink, considering it’s the default color that I use for the headings on all of my articles.”

 

Tessa and Scott eat dinner, and they talk in-between bites of salad and pasta.

Scott talks about how, after he graduated college, he, Danny, and Charlie went to Ireland for a week. They took a weekend trip to England, and Charlie got them so lost that they had to spend an extra night there, but since they hadn’t planned on it, the hotel that they had been staying in filled up. Instead, they stayed in this probably-haunted hotel, and Danny was so scared that he made Scott and Charlie sleep in his room with him.

“That definitely sounds like something Danny would do,” Tessa laughs, as she takes another bite of spaghetti.

“Yeah, and there was a thunderstorm, too. Since we were on the top floor of the hotel, we could hear it so loudly. I don’t think Danny slept at all that night. Or Charlie, for that matter.”

“Not to change the subject, but when did he and Nicole meet? Aimee, one of the bridesmaids, had said that they met in college.”

“Yeah, they met in college, but they hated each other at first. They were lab partners in chemistry only because they were both late on the first day. Charlie would complain about her whenever he talked to me, which was a lot. He came around, obviously, but it was a few years later and he swears that he forgot about the fact that they were lab partners. I have no idea how that happened, but it did. You know the rest, obviously.”

“Yeah. They seem really cute together. Do you get along with Nicole?”

“Not at first, I’ll admit. All I could remember was how rude she was to Charlie, and for some reason, I just couldn’t get over that. I wasn’t, like, mean to her or anything, but just kind of . . . cool towards her, if that makes sense?”

“Yeah, it definitely does. Jordan had a boyfriend who I didn’t like when I was in college, and I think I was the same way with him.”

“Nicole and I are good now, obviously. What was Jordan’s boyfriend like?”

“He wasn’t horrible to her or anything. He was actually really nice, but also kind of boring. She would always want to go on all these amazing trips, and he wouldn’t go with her. Jordan travelled a lot by herself then. I would have gone with her, but I was in school, so . . . They broke up shortly after I graduated, and she moved back in with our parents for a little while. Her and her boyfriend had been living together, and she’d moved out because it was too far of a commute to work, and it was right by where he worked.

“Which seems a little unfair, now that I think about it. Maybe that’s part of the reason she broke up with him. Whenever I saw them together he always seemed really unwilling to compromise. That’s a big part of a relationship, so to not have that . . .”

“Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Was he nice to you?”

“He was, but he was also really quiet. In the years that they were together, I don’t think I had a one-on-one conversation with him. Six months after she and that guy broke up, she met her current boyfriend.”

“So Jordan and her current boyfriend have been together for a long time?”

“Yeah, almost seven years. I hope they’ll get engaged soon, but maybe after Kaitlyn’s wedding. I’m a little tired of having to hear about wedding planning, I could do without it for a while.”

Scott laughs and takes her hand. “This has been really nice, T. I’m sorry you were so worried earlier.”

“Don’t worry about it, seriously. I’m fine now. I’m glad that we’ve learned more about each other, though. Do you think it’s okay if we take things slow, though? I just want to get to know you better.”

“Of course. I feel that way too, so I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

Just before she leaves, she and Scott make sure to delete Tinder off of their phones. He kisses her as she walks out the door, and she smiles at him, smiles the whole way home.

When Tessa gets home later that night, she texts Carmen and Laura, gives them the gist of what she and Scott talked about, just so they’re not worried anymore.

Carmen sends back a thumbs-up emoji and Laura says, _yay! We’re so happy for the two of you, Tess!_

After that, she heads to sleep, and for once, Tessa finds that she’s not worried about her and Scott’s relationship, because she figures that it’s just something that’s going to happen naturally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, I'm so sorry for the long delay between chapters! I hope all of you are doing well and that you enjoy this new chapter! :)


	10. here we are and we're so in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott go to Kaitlyn and Andrew's wedding.

**august seventeenth**

  
  


Tessa is positive that she gets absolutely no sleep the night before Kaitlyn’s wedding.

It’s not because she’s up late with Kaitlyn and their friends; she goes to bed at a reasonable hour, is still awake when Scott lies down beside her not too long after she gets up to their room. She tosses and turns all night, waking her boyfriend up more times than she even realizes.

She doesn’t know why she’s so nervous; she isn’t even the one getting married.

Maybe it’s because her friend has been talking about it for so long that she feels like she’s a big part of it when she isn’t, not really.

Scott is still asleep next to her, and when he rolls over onto his side so that he’s facing her, he almost elbows her in the face. Luckily, she sits up just before that can happen, and wanders over to the balcony attached to their hotel room. Despite the fact that no one lives very far from the venue, Kaitlyn had booked a block of rooms for the wedding party because she thought it would be easier to wake up and be right there, down the street from the hall where both the ceremony and the reception are taking place.

The sun is barely poking through the clouds, yet Tessa still sits down on one of the plastic patio chairs.

Even though it’s summer, it’s a little chilly outside. She wishes that she’d thought to grab the sweatshirt she’d packed, but she’s too comfortable outside now and doesn’t want to get up.

She’s been thinking, reflecting, a lot on her future. Probably because of the wedding, because big life events like this tend to make Tessa put her own life into perspective.

But the thing is, she’s not just been thinking about her future, but Scott’s, as well. More importantly, their future together.

_Together._

That’s not something she ever expected, if she’s honest.

When she shut the car door after he told her that he was moving away for college and didn’t tell her for months and months, she really thought that was the end of their story.

That he would go off and marry Clara, have lots of kids with her, and they would live a happy life. Tessa would fall in love again and get married, or maybe she wouldn’t, but she never thought she’d be sad if she were single. She thinks that everything happens for a reason.

And because of that, believes that she and Scott crossed paths on Tinder for a reason, because they were meant to be in each other’s lives in some way.

Tessa isn’t sure that she believes in destiny, but she knows that she believes in something like it. Otherwise her and Scott would have never met up again and wouldn’t be dating.

When she was a teenager, she thought that if she dated Scott, that was it. He was The One for her, at least for sixteen-year-old Tessa. 

Now that it’s been ten years and some months, she knows that that’s true, but she’s also glad that she had the experience of life without dating him because it’s not something that she wants to go through again.

They’re probably going to get married someday, she thinks, although not soon. They haven’t really even talked about it, because they haven’t been dating very long. In fact, if someone had told her five years ago, even last year, that Tessa would eventually think about marrying Scott Moir, she would have laughed in their face and said _yeah, right_.

The sliding glass door that connects their balcony to the room opens, but she hardly notices. Tessa is just focusing on being calm about today, because she really has no reason to be nervous. 

She definitely wishes that she’d gotten more sleep the night before though.

Scott sits down next to her, and she leans her head on his shoulder.

“Everything okay?” he asks her, setting his hand on her knee.

She nods, her eyes closing. “Yeah, I’m just tired. It’s early, I wasn’t expecting you to be awake yet.”

She’s not looking at him, but he smiles. “It is, but I heard you get up and couldn’t fall back asleep.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, T. I get it, really.”

“I hope everything goes well today for Kaitlyn and Andrew.”

“Yeah, me too. They deserve to have a really special day, don’t they?”

Tessa nods, and the pair sit in silence after that, until Carmen knocks on their door and tells them to come downstairs because everyone is going to breakfast.

As she and Scott make their way to the lobby, Tessa is expecting just the standard hotel's buffet breakfast, but, once she sees the wedding party plus Kaitlyn and Andrew’s parents standing in the lobby, she knows that’s not going to be the case.

“What’s happening?” Scott mutters under his breath, and she shrugs, not having an answer for him.

Since it’s the morning of the wedding, she knows that it’s tradition for the bride and groom not to see each other before the ceremony, so she thinks it is quite strange that Kaitlyn and Andrew’s parents are here.

Tessa’s eyes scan the room for the bride and groom themselves, but they are nowhere to be found.

“Where’s–?” she starts, is cut off when Carmen addresses the group.

“Everyone! Kaitlyn and Andrew are, as you may know, not supposed to see each other at all before the ceremony, so what they’ve done is each picked out two breakfast spots and are waiting for you to join them. You’ll be split into two groups; half of you will join the bride and the other half will go with the groom. Then, you’ll switch. Does that make sense to you all?”

There are various nods from the group, so Carmen and Laura each take turns reading the lists of people.

Tessa is going to see Kaitlyn first, while Scott is going to see Andrew. She’s okay with the fact that they are in different groups, because it’ll be nice to spend time with her friends as well as Kaitlyn’s parents.

Plus, she’ll see him at the wedding, and they don’t have to be together 100 percent of the time.

“I’ll see you later,” Scott whispers to her as he smiles and squeezes her hand before he joins the group going to meet Andrew.

She nods, watches as he walks away, and heads off to join everyone heading to breakfast with Kaitlyn.

Everyone splits off into cars, and Tessa gets in the car with Carmen, Laura, and Anna, Kaitlyn’s cousin.

“Where are we going?” Anna wonders aloud, climbing into the backseat next to Tessa.

“Do you know of _un œuf_?” Carmen replies calmly with an easy grin.

She knows that Tessa has heard of it and isn’t surprised when her friend lets out a laugh.

“What’s going on?” Laura asks.

“It’s super hard to get into _un œuf_ ; you have to book reservations, like, two years in advance. I can’t believe we’re going there,” Tessa responds.

“So, I’m guessing it’s good then, yeah?” Anna asks.

“I don’t know,” Tessa answers honestly. “I’ve never been there, but from what I’ve heard, it’s amazing.”

They arrive at the restaurant. Despite the fact that it’s the early morning, the parking lot is packed, and it takes them almost ten minutes just to find a parking spot.

There’s a pink neon sign that tells them that they are, in fact, at the right place. The name of the restaurant is mounted in all-lowercase cursive on the front of the building. 

On the outside, _un œuf_ is a light blue color, and when the four of them step up to the doors, the door handles are sparkling gold in the sunlight.

“Wow,” Anna mumbles, “this is amazing, and we haven’t even been inside yet! I hope the food is good.”

“I’m sure it will be,” Carmen says, pulling open the door and leading the rest of them inside.

 

Breakfast is, indeed, fantastic. Despite the place being named for the French translation of “egg,” it doesn’t only serve eggs or other egg-centered breakfast dishes.

Tessa orders a stack of pancakes so high that it stops almost at her chin. Carmen laughs so hard at it that she spews water all over the pristine white table cloths. 

Out of the corner of her eye, Tessa sees their waiter give their table a dirty look, but she doesn’t say anything as her friends laugh and laugh around her.

Eventually she joins in, although she isn’t really sure what’s so funny about it.

“I think we’re all just so stressed,” Anna supplies an answer for her unasked question, “That anything at this point is just hilarious, for absolutely no reason.”

The table nods at her words. Their waiter passes by with a water pitcher and refills their cups as everyone talks loudly about the wedding and how excited they are.

As Tessa laughs along, she wonders if Kaitlyn is nervous, and then wonders if she would be nervous were this her wedding day to Scott.

She doesn’t think so; she loves him and knows that he loves her back, what would there be to be nervous about? At the end of the day, isn’t love the ultimate goal? Not just romantic love, of course, but family love and a love for the life you’ve built for yourself. Isn’t that all anyone is just trying to achieve? To love and be loved in return.

A few hours later, as the two of them are in their hotel room getting ready for the wedding, Tessa thinks about that.

Once they’re done getting ready, Scott holds out his hand and smiles at her. “Ready, T?”

She turns her head to look at him; looks at his adoring smile and his bright eyes, and she doesn’t hesitate to take his offered hand, thinking about love and how much she loves him. “Let’s go.”

Tessa thinks about everything that’s happened; how lucky she’s been that he’s come back into her life after so long. She is pretty lucky, she knows.

“You okay?” he asks her, squeezing her hand.

“Honestly, I’ve never been better,” she answers him.

With that, Tessa and Scott walk out of their hotel towards their best friends’ wedding, hand in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so, so sorry it took me this long to get this last chapter out, but I hope you all enjoy it very much! 
> 
> Thank you for your support on this story and for coming on this journey with me, it really means a lot! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited about this, and I hope you are too! As of right now, I'm going to update once a week (probably on Sunday's)!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading! Kudos and comments are very much appreciated! :)


End file.
